Cryogenic Microphotonic Accelerometer

Accelerometers, which are required for vibration cancellation, that can operate in extreme conditions, especially in the high radiation environments around Jupiter#39;s moons are currently not available.The innovative claims for the proposed effort are as follows:Cryogenic operation enabled;Magnetic field tolerant;A shock and vibration immune high sensitivity opto-electronic platform will be demonstrated and packaged for the first time;The sensitivity as well as the bias drift of the accelerometer will be two orders of magnitude higher than existing MEMS devices; the high sensitivity of the device will be compensated by its large dynamic range to ensure vibration and shock survivability;The power consumption of the assembled device will be less than a quarter of a Watt;Has a clear path tonbsp; radiation hardening.The team will determine the viability of the opto-electro-mechanical technology and its applicability to acceleration sensing at low temperatures.nbsp; The underpinning of Phase I ofnbsp; this effort is the development of a high-Q optically driven MEMS resonator as well as auxiliary optics and electronics allowing compact packaging of the device. An early demonstration of this capability will be made and a clear improvement path will be developed to further improve the performance.nbsp;