A friction less accelerometer exploiting a magnetic levitating mechanism and an inductive readout strategy

In this paper a levitating acceleration sensor exploiting an inductive readout strategy is presented. The system uses four NdFeB magnets and a graphite tile to implement the levitating mechanism. The graphite tile has a dimensions of 1.2 cm2and it is suspended by 8 mm on the magnetic substrate. The latter has a surface of 2.4 cm2. The main claims of the device presented through this paper are mainly related to the low cost inductive readout strategies, as well as standard advantages coming from the levitation mechanism, such as low friction and high responsivity. The responsivity and the resolution of the acceleration sensor are 1.26 V/m/s2and 0.005 m/s2, respectively.