High G MEMS accelerometer for Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM)

The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM), under development by the US Army´s Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), is designed to be the next generation hypervelocity missile. CKEM will be smaller, lighter and faster than current generation kinetic energy missiles. The guidance and control system for CKEM therefore requires rapid, precise, pre-launch alignment of a miniature strapdown inertial navigation unit containing high performance gyros and accelerometers capable of operating through a launch acceleration of 1000 Gs. This paper provides a brief overview of the design and fabrication and test of the Northrop Grumman High G MEMS accelerometer. The design of the High G MEMS accelerometer is based on Northrop Grumman´s SiAc™ high accuracy, navigation grade MEMS silicon accelerometer currently in production. The High G MEMS accelerometer retains the bulk micromachined, deep RIE, single crystal silicon, SOI materials and fabrication methods used in the SiAc™ accelerometer. The accelerometer also retains the charge control, pulse width modulation force feedback closed loop servo used in the SiAc™ accelerometer. Test results demonstrating the capability of the accelerometer to meet CKEM´s system performance requirements are presented for both instrument level and in-flight testing.