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Optical-mechanical vibrating beam accelerometer

  • US 9,983,225 B2
  • Filed: 01/14/2016
  • Issued: 05/29/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system configured to:

  • couple one or more lasers into optical resonance with one or more opto-mechanically active (OMA) anchors suspending a proof mass in an accelerometer;

    lock frequencies of the one or more lasers to one or more optical resonances of the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors, resulting in a modulated laser coupled with the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors;

    demodulate a photocurrent generated by a photodiode that detects the modulated laser coupled with the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors to detect at least one of an amplitude or a phase of the modulated laser;

    lock a frequency of the modulated laser to dynamically track instantaneous resonance frequencies of one or more mechanical modes of the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors through changes to at least one of the amplitude or the phase of the modulated laser induced by the coupling of the modulated laser to the mechanical modes of the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors; and

    measure an acceleration of the accelerometer based at least in part on the instantaneous resonance frequencies of the one or more mechanical modes of the one or more opto-mechanically active anchors, as dynamically tracked through the changes to the at least one of the amplitude or the phase of the modulated laser.

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