TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE AND DRIFT OF A THERMAL ACCELEROMETER

Silicon accelerometers are increasingly used in the automotive industr y, but applications for 3D mice or so-called gesture-controlled remote controls are also feasible. For such applications, small, low-cost se nsors are needed which not only meet certain requirements for sensitiv ity, working range or response time but can also work in a large tempe rature range as occurs in automobiles. In this paper, an accelerometer based on a thermal principle is described. This accelerometer works a t frequencies up to 300 Hz; it has an output signal of about 20 mV g(- 1) and shows very low temperature dependence and drift for a thermal d evice. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.