Frequency Staggered Accelerometer Array for Improved Ringdown Behavior

A method of improving the measurement bandwidth in high-g accelerometer introduces small increments in the resonance frequencies of individual accelerometer cells in a parallel array. The tradeoff between the ensemble impulse response and the sensitivity is captured by defining the figure of merit (FOM) as the ratio of the squared peak effective displacement of the proof mass to the energy under the ring-down curve. An arrayed accelerometer design is shown to have an inherently higher FOM compared to a single-mass design. Resonant frequency staggering in an array of 336 cells improves the estimated FOM by an order of magnitude with only 2.4 times reduction in expected sensitivity.