Digital control of tunneling accelerometer

A controller for a tunneling accelerometer has two tasks: to establish tunneling and to maintain tunneling during acceleration. This paper describes the design and implementation of a digital controller that accomplishes these tasks and provides the appropriate gain switching. The control law is based on a standard configuration of an observer and state feedback. A digital controller is implemented because the controller parameters can be easily adjusted, thereby allowing for rapid prototyping. The design methodology presented here can be used as a general plug-and-play controller platform for a range of MEMS sensors. The performance of the digital controller is illustrated experimentally using metrics such as tracking response, drift, noise floor and response linearity.