Surface micromachined sensors for vehicle and personal navigation systems

Vehicle navigation systems rely for the most part on GPS receivers to derive position and provide route guidance and vehicle tracking. GPS signal reception is not always 100% reliable however, necessitating backup from a supplemental system capable of performing dead reckoning. For short periods of time, this function can be filled by a combination of a gyroscope and accelerometer(s). Over the past few years, significant progress has been made in the field of surface micromachining, allowing semiconductor manufacturers to bring to market accelerometers using this new technology. Analog Devices' ADXL202 is one example of such accelerometers capable of achieving sufficient accuracy at the low cost required for a viable and practical solution for vehicle navigation systems.