Tri-axial accelerometer with an electrostatically suspended cruciform test mass

摘要

Electrostatic accelerometer comprising an accelerometer body, a test mass movable with respect to said body and a very flexible and fine wire electrically connecting said body to said test mass. Electrodes 1 to 12 are secured to the accelerometer body and form with said test mass electrostatically positioning and position detecting capacitors. Position detecting signals are picked up by the capacitors and serve to generate positioning signals applied to the capacitors for holding the test mass motionless. The test mass is cruciform in shape and formed of three identical rectangular plates having coinciding centres and lying respectively in three planes, each plane being orthogonal to the two others.