Title :
Micromachined, fiber-optic based accelerometer with shutter modulation
Author :
Guldimann, B. ; Thiébaud, P. ; de Rooij, N.F. ; Turpin, R.A.
Author_Institution :
SAMLAB, Neuchatel Univ., Switzerland
Abstract :
A highly sensitive shutter modulated fiber-optic accelerometer has been fabricated and characterized. Its structure is based on a mass suspended by two side-by-side cantilever beams. A vertical shutter at the free end of the mass can move vertically in the optical path between two multimode optical fibers. Cantilever beams, mass, shutter and optical fiber grooves are fabricated by advanced deep reactive ion etching. The accelerometer is characterized using a supra luminescent diode. A resonance frequency above 1 kHz and a measurement range of ±5 g are measured. To demonstrate the potential of using an economic light emitting diode, an experiment with 2 μW input power was performed. It resulted in a noise equivalent acceleration of 2 mg
Keywords :
accelerometers; fibre optic sensors; intensity modulation; micro-optics; micromachining; microsensors; optical fabrication; optical modulation; sputter etching; SOI wafer; Si; advanced deep reactive ion etching; economic light emitting diode; intensity modulation; micromachined fiber-optic accelerometer; multimode optical fibers; noise equivalent acceleration; optical fiber grooves; resonance frequency; shutter modulation; side-by-side cantilever beams; suspended mass; vertical shutter; Accelerometers; Etching; Frequency measurement; Light emitting diodes; Optical fibers; Optical modulation; Optical sensors; Particle beam optics; Resonance; Structural beams;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2000. MEMS 2000. The Thirteenth Annual International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Miyazaki
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5273-4
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.2000.838605
