MEMS for Aerospace Navigation

摘要

The MEMS aerospace market has its own specificities in terms of market size, standards, and performance characteristics (very long term stability, reliability and safety levels). Improvements are needed for future applications, usage of large volume MEMS components is generally very difficult and Aerospace companies have to develop their own MEMS products. rnUsing of MEMS pressure sensors has been generalized for many Navigation applications, such as Altitude and Speed, but for Inertial sensors like accelerometers and rate gyros the evolution will be more progressive beginning now, by low grade performance sensors for instrumentation and flight control and followed by high accuracy navigation systems within the next decade. rnTHALES Avionics has a twenty year experience in quartz and silicon MEMS design and manufacturing and is recognized as a leader by the French MOD in this field. MEMS pressure sensors and accelerometers are manufactured in large volume and used for safety critical applications. Long term stability performances are described. rnTHALES Avionics has its own foundry facilities and has developed partnership with research centers like CEALETI and ONERA for advanced studies and TRONIC’S Microsystems for new development and second manufacturing source. THALES technology policy focused on planar architecture, die vacuum packaging and DRIE Deep Reactive Ion Etching allowing good characteristics for sensors in development. rnA Silicon Vibrating Beam Accelerometer single chip is now under development. Its operating principle is described with two resonators in push-pull configuration. A tuning fork planar rate gyro is also developed with exactly the same technology for industrial efficiency. Performance results will be addressed. rnThe perspective for Inertial MEMS products are in a first step, a civilian cluster ( 3 rate gyros and 3 accelerometers) for Air Transport aircraft and helicopters. In a second step for defense application a downsizing from 150 cm3 down to 25 cm3 compatible with ammunition hardening using ASICs is expected. rnThe development and industrialization road-map of theses products is described for the following five years. The perspective of high accuracy is given through an argumentation on technology improvement and sensor design evolution. Gyro-compassing grade inertial sensors would be available during the next decade allowing low cost high grade navigators using simultaneously GNSS receivers and inertial MEMS navigators.