High sensitivity cymbal-based accelerometer

A high sensitivity piezoelectric accelerometer has been developed by replacing the conventional piezoelectric rings with a cymbal transducer. The sensitivity of the cymbal-based accelerometers containing cymbal transducers with different endcap thicknesses and different seismic masses has been measured as a function of driving frequency. Due to the high d33′ coefficient of the cymbal transducers, the cymbal-based accelerometers have a high sensitivity of ∼97 pC ms-2 with the amplitude rise of 2.85% (<1 dB) at one-third of the mounted resonance frequency (3.38 kHz). The effect of the seismic mass, the resonance frequency, and d33′ coefficient of the cymbal transducers on the sensitivity and the frequency range of the cymbal-based accelerometers are reported.