APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PHOTONIC INTEGRATED RESONANT ACCELEROMETER

摘要

The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 μm) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

主权项

1. An accelerometer comprising:
a proof mass; a first tether, mechanically coupled to a first side of the proof mass, to vibrate in response to acceleration of the proof mass; a first ring resonator evanescently coupled to the first tether, wherein vibration of the first tether causes a change of a first resonance condition of the first ring resonator; a detection system, operably coupled to the first ring resonator, to sense the change of the first resonance condition of the first ring resonator.