GaAs BASED ACCELEROMETERS FOR INTEGRATED GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION SUBSYSTEMS

Top-Vu's unique approach is to integrate micro-inertial elements and electronics on a gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrate. The advantages are high precision guidance and navigation, virtually no uncorrelated output errors, high reliability in accelerated environment, excellent electrical isolation with mechanical switch, extremely wide operating temperature range (both high and low), excellent radiation hardness, high speed response (real time), high sensor coupling efficiency with GaAs electronics, photonic integration and interface, and low noise. Our strategy addresses the performance improvements by combining the material, device, circuit, and system technologies together. Our approach is innovative, effective, and provides system capabilities unobtainable without the use of GaAs technology. The objective of this project is to develop monolithic GaAas-based accelerometers with GaAs readout electronics. The technical objectives of the Phase I 6 months project are to: 1) design optimization of micro-inertial elements (accelerometers and microactuator switches), 2) process integration, and 3) readout electronics. The primary application of this project is for integrated guidance and navigation subsystems, and it is applicable to man other micro-electro-mechanical systems for defense applications such as intertial measurment units, body-position sensors, electromechanical signal processing elements and opto-mechanical systems.