Design and Simulation of Convective Inertial Sensor

This paper reports the design and simulation of a MEMS convective inertial sensor, which integrates a new three-axis gyroscope and four single-axis accelerometers. The device can independently detect three components of angular rate and two components of linear acceleration. In order to create a jet flow for angular rate sensing, a micro jet pump actuated by PZT diaphragm is integrated into the device. Fluidic transient compressible analysis was performed by Fluent solver. The experiment on prototype of micro jet pump has confirmed the working principle as well as the reliability of simulation method. The device can be fabricated by standard bulk MEMS technology. In inertial measurement applications, the multi axis inertial sensor is more advantageous than a multi single-axis sensors system in terms of directivity or cross-sensitivity because the alignment is now determined by photolithography, and further more, the sensor-to-sensor distance is also eliminated. The fluidic inertial sensor has high shock resistance and high durability in fatigue damage.