An integrated accelerometer for dynamic motion systems

For dynamic motion systems, this paper presents a design for an integrated accelerometer that combines salient features of a MEMS capacitive accelerometer and a piezoelectric accelerometer. The piezoelectric accelerometer has a wide frequency range for measuring dynamic acceleration but is unable to sense static and quasi-static acceleration. On the other hand, the MEMS capacitive accelerometer is dc coupled and hence suitable for measuring low-frequency motion but suffers from a limited bandwidth and a low signal-to-noise ratio. The proposed accelerometer fuses these two accelerometers, being able to measure static and quasi-static acceleration and also having measurement of a wide frequency range. Experimental studies have been conducted to show feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed accelerometer.