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AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsSuraj Deepak Bramhavar, Paul William Juodawlkis
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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.
An accelerometer comprising:
A method of sensing acceleration with an accelerometer comprising a proof mass, a first tether mechanically coupled to a first side of the proof mass and characterized by a resonant frequency that changes in response to acceleration of the proof mass, and a first ring resonator evanescently coupled to the first tether, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.