Page History

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Applying equation (4) to equation (3) yields

                            Figure 2 a. Response of spring-mass system to vibration compared to w^2 prediction b. Effect of various peak motion [2,3]
                                                                          Reprinted from Process Control Instrumentation Technology book

Define f as the applied frequency, and fN is the natural frequency of the accelerometer. When f < fN , the natural frequency has little effect on the operation of the accelerometer. when f > fN, the accelerometer output is independent of the applied frequency. An important point worth noting is that with the applied frequency much larger than the natural frequency, the accelerometer becomes a measurement of vibration displacement . At near the resonance of accelerometer's natural frequency, the output of the accelerometer becomes high non-linear.
A rule of thumb is that with f < fN, the safe maximum applied frequency should be f < 2/5 fN.With f > fN, the minimum applied frequency should be f > 5/2 fN.[2,4] So to best avoid the severe effect of resonance, the accelerometer should not be used near the resonance of their frequency because the output will become non-linear. Furthermore, the accelerometer should not be used with the applied frequency larger than the natural frequency if the measurement system is meant to measure acceleration.This has an important implication in the selection of the accelerometer for an application.

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Interface electronic circuits

• How the input signal is conditioned, e.g. how the signal from the sensor is bring up to the format compatible with the load device?
• What is the electrical input impedance of the sensor?
• On which parameters does it depend on? e.g. frequency, temperature, etc.
• Does the signal need amplification?
• What are typical values for the amplifiers?
• does the sensor need excitation current or voltage? How much?
• What other analog electronics are needed for the signal conditioning?
• How the signal is converted to digital format?
• Does the A/D conversion happen already in the sensor or is it typically converted in PC or embedded system?
• How much there is noise? And what kind of?
• How is the sensor calibrated?

Types of accelerometers

So far, I have discussed mainly spring-mass based accelerometers since it is the focus of this wiki page. In addition to that, there are many other accelerometers that are designed based on other physical phenomenon. In fact, what makes a difference between the types is the sensing element and their operating principles. There are many types of accelerometers in real life applications such as capacitive, piezoelectric, piezoresistive, Hall effect, magnetoresistive, heat transfer, MEMS-based accelerometers, to name just a few. Commonly used accelerometers, however, will be represented in this wiki page.

Potentiometric accelerometer

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Hall effect accelerometer

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Capacitive accelerometer

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Piezoresistive accelerometer

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MEMS-Based Accelerometers

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Section characteristics of an accelerometer mentioned some of the most important characteristics of an accelerometer. Examples of these characteristics were taken from the LIS3L02AL accelerometer which is used in the Wii Nunchuk. Unfortunately, the schematic for interfacing between the LIS3L02AL accelerometer and other electronic circuits is not "open source". Therefore, in this section an ADXL203 accelerometer from Analog Devices and its signal conditioning circuit will be used instead. This circuit is an used for the EVAL-CN0189-SDPZ evaluation board from Analog Devices. Figure 4 shows how the PCB of this board looks like.

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Figure 4. Analog Devices EVAL-CN0189-SDPZ evaluation board

Reprinted from Analog Devices [10]

Figure 5 shows a circuit schematics which includes a dual axis ADXL203 accelerometer and the AD7887 12-bit successive approximation analog to digital converter (ADC). This is a simplified schematics designed as a signal conditioning circuit for the evaluation board shown in figure 4.

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Figure 5. ADXL203 accelerometer and its signal conditioning circuit.

Reprinted from Analog Devices [11]

The signals from the x axis and y axis are conditioned by using an AD8608 quad amplifier. The main purpose of the quad operational amplifier is to buffer, attenuate, and level shift the x axis and y axis signals of the ADXL203 accelerometer so that the signals are at proper levels for interfacing with, for example, an ADC. In particular, the quad AD8608 is used to create a 2-stage conditioning circuit. The first stage provides a signal gain of 1.2 and level shifts the common-mode voltage  (VCM) to 2 V [10]. The gain can be calculated from a non-inverting amplifier formula as follows:

where A(v) is the closed loop voltage gain; Rf (1KΩ) is a feedback resistor; R2 has a value of (5KΩ); Vin is the input voltage; Vout is the output voltage.

The second stage amplifier gives a voltage gain of 1.1 and establishes the common-mode output voltage of 1.7 V. Therefore, the total voltage of the is 1.32 after a signal from the accelerometer has gone through 2 stages of amplification . A common-mode voltage of 1.7 V after being conditioned is good enough to line up with the load device [10]. The load device in this case is an AD7887 ADC which needs an input voltage range of 0 to 3.3 V.

The ADXL203 accelerometer has an internal resistor of 32KΩ at each output, one from the x axis output and one from the y axis output. The tolerance of the internal resistor vary as much as ±25%[12]. Each of the internal resistors are connected with a capacitor of 10μF to make a low-pass filtering circuit for antialiasing and removing high frequency components of noise. The bandwidth of the low-pass filter can be calculated using the following formula.

where R is the internal resistor (32KΩ for ADXL203 accelerometer), and C is the capacitor.

To help quickly determine the value of a capacitor for a particular bandwidth, table 1 shows the values of capacitors and the corresponding low-pass filter bandwidth.

Table 1. Filter capacitor selection for a bandwidth

Data gathered from Analog Devices data sheet [12]

Apart from the capacitors used for the low-pass filtering circuits, there are also some other passive components used for the signal conditioning circuit. Eight resistors are used for the quad op amp. The values of them can be seen in figure 5. The ADXL203 accelerometer can be powered between 3 to 6V. However, it is recommended that the sensor be powered from a 5V power supply for optimum overall performance[10]. To reduce the effect of noise from the power supply for the accelerometer, two decoupling capacitors are used, one 0.1μF capacitor and one 10μF capacitor. The ADXL203 noise has the characteristics of white Gaussian noise, which contributes equally at all frequencies.

Until now, the signals from the x axis and y axis of the accelerometer are properly conditioned, and they are actually analog signals. In order to convert these analog signals to digital ones, the AD7887 12-bit successive approximation analog to digital converter is used as shown in figure 5. The ADC operates from a 2.7V to 5.25V power supply. It is capable of sampling signal with a sampling rate of 125Khz. The output coding for the AD7887 is straight binary. The ADC can be configured by software to operate at either dual channel or single channel via the on-chip control register. Regarding communication, the ADC supports an SPI interface which can be used to interface with an embedded processor.

The circuit shown in figure 5 itself possesses errors including offset error and sensitivity mismatch error. In order to compensate those errors, two techniques are used to calibrate the circuit. The first technique is called no-turn calibration and the second one is called multiple turn calibration.

Types of accelerometers

So far, I have discussed mainly spring-mass based accelerometers since it is the focus of this wiki page. In addition to that, there are many other accelerometers that are designed based on other physical phenomenon. In fact, what makes a difference between the types is the sensing element and their operating principles. There are many types of accelerometers in real life applications such as capacitive, piezoelectric, piezoresistive, Hall effect, magnetoresistive, heat transfer, MEMS-based accelerometers, to name just a few. Commonly used accelerometers, however, will be represented in this wiki page.

Potentiometric accelerometer

This is a type of an accelerometer which bases its working principles on the spring-mass system. The potentiometric accelerometer employs a mass (seismic mass), a spring, a dashpot, and a resistive element. The seismic mass is connected between a spring and a dashpot. The wiper of the potentiometer is connected to the mass.The following figure illustrates the structure of the potentiometric accelerometer.


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                                                                                    Figure 5. Structure of a potentiometric accelerometer [3]

The way it works is simple. It measures the motion of the seismic mass by attaching the wiper arm to the spring-mass system. When the mass is moving, the position of the wiper changes according, thus changing the resistance of the resistive element. Since the natural frequency fN of the potentiometer accelerometer is generally less then 30Hz, this type of accelerometer should be used in low frequency vibration measurements. 

Hall effect accelerometer

Hall effect accelerometer is based the working principles of on spring-mass system. The output voltage varies according to a change in magnetic field from the magnet which is attached on a seismic mass. The mass deflects because of the forces due to acceleration. The output Hall voltage is calibrated in terms of acceleration.

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                                                                           Figure 6. Simplified structure of a Hall effect accelerometer [4,3]

Capacitive accelerometer

Capacitive accelerometer operates based on spring-mass system working principles. It differs from Hall effect accelerometer and potentiometric accelerometer in its sensing element. Figure 7 shows the structure of a capacitive accelerometer, The sensing electrodes are in stationary state, and the diaphragm which is attached to the seismic mass is sandwiched in between the two sensing electrodes creating two capacitors.
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                                                                                   Figure 7. Structure of capacitive accelerometer [5]

The vibration because of the forces due to acceleration causes the seismic or proof mass to move. The motion of the mass leads to the capacitance change of the sensing electrodes so as to determine the acceleration. The movement of the diaphragm causes a capacitance shift by altering the distance between the two parallel plates, with the diaphragm itself being one of the plates.  

Piezoresistive accelerometer

Unlike the three types of accelerometers mentioned above, Piezoresistive accelerometers do not use a spring. Instead of that, the mass is attached to cantilever beam which in turn is sandwiched in between strain gages.

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                                                                                          Figure 8. Piezoresistive accelerometer [4,2]

Piezoresistive accelerometer's working principle is based on piezoresistive effect. As far as the piezoresistive effect is concerned, applied mechanical stress changes the resistivity of a semiconductor. The force exerted by the seismic mass changes the resistance of the strain gages. Piezoresistive accelerometers are used in high shock applications, and they can also measure accelerations down to zero Hz or up to ±1000g. But, the disadvantage is that they have limited high frequency response. [6]

MEMS-Based Accelerometers

MEMS stands for Micro-Electro Mechanical System. It is the technology which is based advanced technologies used to form small structures with dimensions in micrometer scale. MEMS technology is now being employed to manufacture state-of-the-art MEMS-based accelerometers.
Initially, MEMS accelerometers was designed using piezoresistors. Since piezoresistors are less sensitive than capacitive detection, the majority of MEMS accelerometers nowadays use capacitive sensing principle. MEMS-based accelerometer typically consists of a proof mass with plates attached through a mechanical suspension system to a reference frame. Movable plates (part of the seismic mass) and the outer plates in stationary state form differential capacitor. Because of the forces due to acceleration, the seismic mass deflects; the deflection is measured in terms of capacitance change. [4,3]

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                                                                            Figure 9. MEMS-based accelerometer structure [4,3]

Selection of an accelerometer

In order to make a decision on which accelerometer can be used based on the requirements, it is necessary to understand the specifications of the accelerometer. These specifications can be found from the datasheet of an accelerometer. They include dynamic specifications, electrical specifications and mechanical specifications. Some of the important ones are as follows:

• Dynamic range: This is the +/- maximum amplitude that the accelerometer can measure before distorting or clipping the output signal.     Dynamical range is typically specified in g's.
  
  
• Sensitivity: Sensitivity is the scale factor of a sensor or system, measured in terms of change in output signal per change in input measured. Sensitivity references the accelerometer's ability to detect motion. Accelerometer sensitivity is typically specified in millivolt per g of acceleration(mV/g).

• Frequency response: Frequency response is the frequency range for which the sensor will detect motion and report a true output. Frequency response is specified as a range measure in Hz.

• Sensitivity axis: Accelerometers are designed to detect inputs in reference to an axis; single-axis accelerometers can only detect inputs along one plane. Tri-axis accelerometers can detect inputs in any plane and are required for most applications. The accelerometer used in the Nintendo Wii Nunchuk is an example of tri-axis accelerometer.

• Size and mass: Since the size and mass of an accelerometer have an effect on the object being tested, the mass of the accelerometers should be greatly smaller than that of the system to be monitored. [4,4]

In addition to understanding some of the important specifications just mentioned, it should be noted that if the measurement is meant to measure acceleration, then the applied frequency f should be less than the natural frequency fN of the accelerometer.

As a rule of thumb, in low-frequency applications (having a bandwidth on orders from 0 to 10 Hz), position and displacement measurements generally provide good accuracy. In the intermediate-frequency applications (less than 1 kHz), velocity measurement is usually favored. In measuring high-frequency motions with appreciable noise levels, acceleration measurement is preferred. [7,327]

Applications of accelerometers

Accelerometers have many different applications ranging from industry, entertainment, sports to education. These applications can be, for example, triggering airbag deployments or monitoring of nuclear reactors. Accelerometers can also be used to measure static acceleration (gravity), tilt of an object, dynamic acceleration in an aircraft, shock to an object in a car, orientation or vibration of an object. Cell phones, washing machines or computers nowadays also have accelerometers.

References

Selection of an accelerometer

In order to make a decision on which accelerometer can be used based on the requirements, it is necessary to understand the specifications of the accelerometer. These specifications can be found from the datasheet of an accelerometer. They include dynamic specifications, electrical specifications and mechanical specifications. Some of the important ones are as follows:

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• Frequency response: Frequency response is the frequency range for which the sensor will detect motion and report a true output. Frequency response is specified as a range measure in Hz.

• Sensitivity axis: Accelerometers are designed to detect inputs in reference to an axis; single-axis accelerometers can only detect inputs along one plane. Tri-axis accelerometers can detect inputs in any plane and are required for most applications. The accelerometer used in the Nintendo Wii Nunchuk is an example of tri-axis accelerometer.

• Size and mass: Since the size and mass of an accelerometer have an effect on the object being tested, the mass of the accelerometers should be greatly smaller than that of the system to be monitored. [4,4]

In addition to understanding some of the important specifications just mentioned, it should be noted that if the measurement is meant to measure acceleration, then the applied frequency f should be less than the natural frequency fN of the accelerometer.

As a rule of thumb, in low-frequency applications (having a bandwidth on orders from 0 to 10 Hz), position and displacement measurements generally provide good accuracy. In the intermediate-frequency applications (less than 1 kHz), velocity measurement is usually favored. In measuring high-frequency motions with appreciable noise levels, acceleration measurement is preferred. [7,327]

Applications of accelerometers

Accelerometers have many different applications ranging from industry, entertainment, sports to education. These applications can be, for example, triggering airbag deployments or monitoring of nuclear reactors. Accelerometers can also be used to measure static acceleration (gravity), tilt of an object, dynamic acceleration in an aircraft, shock to an object in a car, orientation or vibration of an object. Cell phones, washing machines or computers nowadays also have accelerometers.

References