Accelerometer, Interferometer, Micro
Monday, August 28, 2006
A Micro Interferometer Accelerometer has been designed and developed using a flexible cantilever to attach a seismic mass to a support structure. The seismic mass contains a set of extended fingers connected to the support structure. There are interleaved fingers linked alternately to the seismic mass and the support structure, creating an optical diffraction grating. The relative displacement of the seismic mass to the support structure is measured with a standard laser diode light source and photodetector configuration performing as an Interferometer.
An incident light beam diffracts off the reflective surfaces of the interleaved fingers with the intensities of the diffracted orders determined by the displacement of the seismic mass relative to the support structure. The positioning alignment of the displacement measurement configuration is not critical, since the reflecting surfaces on both sets of extended fingers are machined from a single piece of material.
Source: Laser World Focus, August 2000 Reference:
1) Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2) E.B.Cooper et al., Applied. Physic Letters. 76, 3316, May 29, 2000
3) Micro Technologies Laboratories, MIT, Cambridge, MA
4) Scott Manalis, Media Laboratories, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Industrial Products
posted by JD52 @ 10:35 PM,
