A monolithic high-g SOI-MEMS accelerometer for measuring projectile launch and flight accelerations

Analog Devices (ADI) has designed and fabricated a monolithic high-g acceleration sensor (ADXSTC3-HG) fabricated with the ADI silicon-on-insulator micro-electromechanical system (SOI-MEMS) process. The SOI-MEMS sensor structure has a thickness of 10 μm, allowing for the design of inertial sensors with excellent cross-axis rejection. The high-g accelerometer discussed in this paper was designed to measure in-plane acceleration to 10,000 g while subjected to 100,000 g in the orthogonal axes. These requirements were intended to meet Army munition applications. The monolithic sensor was packaged in an 8-pin leadless chip carrier (LCC-8) and was successfully demonstrated by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) as part of an inertial measurement unit during an instrumented-flight experiment of artillery projectiles launched at 15,000 g.