Low frequency, high sensitive tunable mechanical monolithic horizontal sensors

Fausto Acernese; Rosario De Rosa; Gerardo Giordano; Rocco Romano; Silvia Vilasi; Fabrizio Barone

doi:10.1117/12.879415

18 April 2011 Low frequency, high sensitive tunable mechanical monolithic horizontal sensors

Fausto Acernese, Rosario De Rosa, Gerardo Giordano, Rocco Romano, Silvia Vilasi, Fabrizio Barone

Proceedings Volume 7981, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2011; 79814J (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.879415
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This paper describes an optimized version of the mechanical version of the monolithic tunable folded pendulum, developed at the University of Salerno, configurable both as seismometer and, in a force-feedback configuration, as accelerometer. Typical application of the sensors are in the field of geophysics, including the study of seismic and newtonian noise for characterization of suitable sites for underground interferometer for gravitational waves detection. The sensor, shaped with precision machining and electric-discharge-machining, like the previous version, is a very compact instrument, very sensitive in the low-frequency seismic noise band, with a very good immunity to environmental noises. Important characteristics are the tunability of the resonance frequency and the integrated laser optical readout, consisting of an optical lever and an interferometer. The theoretical sensitivity curves, largely improved due to a new design of the pendulum arms and of the electronics, are in a very good agreement with the measurements. The very large measurement band (10^-6 ± 10Hz) is couple to a very good sensitivity (10^-12 m/√Hz in the band 0.1 ± 10Hz), as seismometer. Prototypes of monolithic seismometers are already operational in selected sites around the world both to acquire seismic data for scientific analysis of seismic noise and to collect all the useful information to understand their performances in the very low frequency band (f < 1mHz). The results of the monolithic sensor as accelerometer (force feed-back configuration) are also presented and discussed. Particular relevance has their sensitivity that is better than 10^-11 m/s²/√Hz in the band 0.1 ± 10Hz. Finally, hypotheses are made on further developments and improvements of monolithic sensors.

Citation Download Citation

Fausto Acernese, Rosario De Rosa, Gerardo Giordano, Rocco Romano, Silvia Vilasi, and Fabrizio Barone "Low frequency, high sensitive tunable mechanical monolithic horizontal sensors", Proc. SPIE 7981, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2011, 79814J (18 April 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.879415

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