Convective thermal accelerometers using screen-printed pyroelectric thick-films

This paper presents a convective thermal accelerometer based on pyroelectric detection. This type of accelerometer uses a central heater to produce an hot air mass acting a as seismic mass. Its displacement is a consequence of the application of an acceleration, measured by two lateral thermal detectors, in our case pyroelectric detectors. The device uses screen printing technology for the deposition of electrodes and active material on two different substrate materials. One has been fabricated on alumina substrate with traditional cermet thick-film technology and the other one on a flexible organic substrate with new polymer pastes. This paper describes the manufacturing and poling process as well as characterizations of the pyroelectric elements. A comparison of the performance of both accelerometers is finally given.