Bio-inspired fluidic thermal angular accelerometer

Abstract

This paper reports on a bio-inspired angular accelerometer based on a two-mask microfluidic process using a PDMS mold. The sensor is inspired by the semicircular canals in mammalian vestibular systems and pairs a fluid-filled microtorus with a thermal detection principle based on thermal convection. With inherent linear acceleration insensitivity, the sensor features a sensitivity of 29.8μV/deg/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> =1.7mV/rad/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , a dynamic range of 14,000deg/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and a detection limit of ~20deg/s <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .