Micromachined Accelerometers for Inertial Navigation Applications

This paper presents research at The University of Michigan on micromachined accelerometers and their interface electronics to satisfy the requirements for inertial navigation applications. The accelerometer systems developed employ in-plane (lateral), out-of-plane (z-axis), and single-chip 3-axis sensors with the interface electronics. The interface electronics forms a second-order electromechanical sigma-delta modulator together with the sensor and the system can be operated in both open and closed-loop. These devices can achieve better than 2μg/√Hz resolution with a range of ±1.35g.