Thanks to our innovative design team, Extec has developed a range of accelerometers utilising our Thick Film technology.

Unique in the world, Extec have perfected a method of releasing printed layers of material to produce suspended elements, just microns thick.

 

Pictured here is a capacitive accelerometer made from two gold plates. The bottom plate is printed onto the base alumina, whilst the top plate is suspended by three “spring” elements. Movement in the Z axis causes deflection of the top plate with a corresponding detectable change in capacitance.

 

Highly accurate and very stable accelerometers can be achieved by using a three plate structure where the top and bottom plates are rigid and the centre plate is released. By using electronics in a bridge arrangement, the centre plate can be driven to maintain equal capacitance between the top and bottom plates and that drive current can be sensed as an accurate output. The bridge arrangement means that common-mode effects such as temperature are nulled.

 

By using three accelerometers mounted in the X,Y and Z axes, Extec made a 3-D mouse, similar to the Nintendo Wii controllers.