Accelerometer using MI sensor

Recently accelerometer attracts much attention from industries for its vast potential to the applications in the field of automobile, mobile computers, robotics and so on. Most of the newly developed accelerometers are Si based sensors with the aid of the MEMS technology. They suffer either weakness against mechanical shock or slow response to the acceleration, so some improvement is needed to apply them to the applications such as cell phones. So far the authors have developed micro MI sensor (magneto-impedance sensor) element that incorporates amorphous magnetic wire and micro-pickup coil. This paper presents a new type of accelerometer using MI element which satisfies mechanical endurance and fast response, as well as miniature size.