High Acceleration and Hypervelocity Inertial Measurement Unit

Gun-launched applications currently expose inertial measurement units (IMUs) to harsh acceleration, shock, and vibration environments. Furthermore, as they become smarter, they present tighter constraints on size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), while still requiring high levels of performance. New accelerometer technology must reduce SWaP-C while operating through high-g acceleration environments that are three times higher than the current state of the art while not significantly reducing sensitivity and resolution, as well as surviving through significantly higher levels of shock. MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) technology provides potential solutions to these challenges. However, the micro-scale features of MEMS accelerometers that enable SWaP-C benefits also tend to reduce performance capabilities. This proposed SBIR effort will develop a reduced SWaP-C MEMS IMU that will survive and operate under these shock conditions. Phase I of the effort will determine the feasibility of a gun-hardened MEMS IMU for harsh environment applications, as well as potential fabrication approaches. The Phase II effort will then prototype the device, as well as and characterize its performance under the anticipated environmental conditions.