Vibrating Beam MEMS Accelerometers for Gravity and Seismic Measurements

Abstract: Advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have enabled the widespread development of inertial sensors for a
variety of consumer, automotive, and wearable healthcare applications. Despite the significant advances, there continues to be interest
in the development of highly accurate MEMS inertial sensors for a variety of emerging applications, for e.g., navigation systems for
pedestrians and autonomous vehicles, and seismic and gravity imaging, where the traditional attributes of MEMS (miniaturization and
system integration) are combined with scalable transduction principles to enable highly accurate physical measurements. Resonant
transducers and oscillatory systems have historically been employed to conduct some of the most precise physical measurements,
and resonant approaches to measurement of forces and displacements in MEMS devices have enabled significant advances in the
accuracy of MEMS inertial sensors in recent years. This talk will describe the evolution of vibrating beam MEMS accelerometers
demonstrating exceptional long-term stability for applications in gravimetry and seismology. Device sensitivity and stability are
demonstrated through the tracking of Earth tides and recording of ground motion corresponding to a number of seismic events.