Newton's chips: Low-g accelerometer ICs

摘要

Inertial sensors have long been in service measuring shock and vibration in a variety of industrial applications, such as prototype characterization, design verification, and diagnostics for large mechanical systems. Ongoing evolution in sensor, signal-conditioning, manufacturing, and packaging technologies has prompted OEM designers to pioneer new applications. Before the arrival of the first generation of MEMS (microelectromechani-cal-systems) devices—sensors that manufacturers fabricate using variations on standard IC-process flows—the most common inertial sensors were ac-celerometers formed of piezoelectric film. Mechanical deformation of the film causes internal charges to redistribute, resulting in a voltage on the sensor's output (Reference 1).