A New Quartz Monolithic Differential Vibrating Beam Accelerometer

This paper deals with a new monolithic differential quartz Vibrating Beam Accelerometers (VBA), called VIASC. The concept of this accelerometer includes the three major insulation requirements of the beams in the same quartz monolithic structure: insulation of the beams against thermal stresses, insulation of the beam vibrations and insulation between the two beams. In this paper, the concept of this accelerometer and its manufacturing process by chemical etching are presented. Preliminary results, which confirm the relevance of the VIASC concept, are given and future work on the sensing element is discussed. Two VIASC developments are envisaged: an accurate VIASC version compatible with inertial navigation requirements and a miniaturized version adapted to guidance applications.

[1]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[2]  G. Schmidt,et al.  Inertial sensor technology trends , 2001 .

[3]  J. Golinval,et al.  Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermoelastic Damping in Micro-Resonators , 2006 .

[4]  P. Bouniol,et al.  The VIA vibrating beam accelerometer: concept and performance , 1998, IEEE 1998 Position Location and Navigation Symposium (Cat. No.98CH36153).

[5]  D. Janiaud,et al.  Monolithic differential vibrating beam accelerometer within an isolating system between the two resonators , 2005, IEEE Sensors, 2005..

[6]  M. Helsel,et al.  A navigation grade micro-machined silicon accelerometer , 1994, Proceedings of 1994 IEEE Position, Location and Navigation Symposium - PLANS'94.

[7]  I. Klapka,et al.  INTERPRETER OOFELIE FOR PDES , 2000 .

[8]  M. Roukes,et al.  Thermoelastic damping in micro- and nanomechanical systems , 1999, cond-mat/9909271.

[9]  Jeffrey T. Borenstein,et al.  The Silicon Oscillating Accelerometer: A MEMS Inertial Instrument for Strategic Missile Guidance , 1998 .

[10]  Tarik Bourouina,et al.  Highly decoupled single-crystal silicon resonators: an approach for the intrinsic quality factor , 2006 .

[11]  Clarence Zener,et al.  Internal friction in solids , 1940 .

[12]  J. Golinval,et al.  THERMOELASTIC DAMPING IN VIBRATING BEAM ACCELEROMETER: A NEW THERMOELASTIC FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH , 2006 .

[13]  Serge Muller,et al.  Performance Evaluation of the VIA Accelerometer , 1998 .