华中科技大学开发出高精度的便携式MEMS重力仪

来源：慧天地

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亮点：中国研究人员开发出一种基于MEMS技术的便携式重力仪，其灵敏度和动态范围可与大型市售重力仪相媲美。

这种新器件是由华中科技大学的Liangcheng Tu的团队研发的，它是由一组包含正、负刚度的梁与质量块组成的一个弹簧-质量系统，该系统在低负荷下刚度极大，而在1g左右的负荷下刚度极小，因此灵敏度极高。通过集成光学传感器对质量块的位移测量实现重力加速度测量。该团队研究人员将该器件与商业重力仪进行了对比测试，发现在潮汐测量中有90％的相关性，这种新器件从石油和天然气勘探到危险检测的应用中都具有广泛的前景。

Researchers in China have developed a small, portable gravimeter based>electromechanical-system (MEMS) technology with a sensitivity and dynamic range comparable with larger, commercially available gravimeters. The new device was created by a team led by Liangcheng Tu at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The MEMS mechanism consists of a spring-mass system designed around a combination of curved and folded beams. Together, these ensure that the system is stiff under low loads but flexible at loads around 1 g. An optical component measures the displacement of the proof mass to measure gravitational acceleration. The team tested their design alongside a commercial gravimeter and found a 90% correlation in the measurements of Earth tides, demonstrating its utility for applications from oil and gas exploration to hazard detection. 

Related paper: A high-sensitivity MEMS gravimeter with a large dynamic range

Microsystems & Nanoengineering 5, Article number: 45 (2019)

doi:10.1038/s41378-019-0089-7