RU94044849A - Electrostatic accelerator with vacuum tunnel pickup - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: instrumentation. SUBSTANCE: electrostatic accelerator with tunnel pickup has case, sensitive mass with restoring suspension, servo system with vacuum tunnel movements pickup and controlled electrostatic suspension. Tests of this equipment under condition of their usage as accelerometers show that their sensitivity is higher than that of accelerometers with present-day capacitive pickups. Theoretical analysis and experiments demonstrate that vacuum tunnel pickup has a number of advantages including: very high amplification factor, low noise and no reverse power action on moving sensitive mass. Its parameters are very close to those of cryogenic SQUID-magnetometer but it does not require cryogenic temperatures which means that its use in accelerometers is advantageous. Disadvantage of known devices with vacuum tunnel pickups lies in the fact that they are single-coordinate with restoring suspension of sensitive mass which limits their functional capabilities. Proposed accelerometer is multicoordinate electrostatic accelerometer with freely suspended sensitive mass and vacuum tunnel pickup. Tunnel pickup insulated from case and immobile electrodes is installed in central hole of accelerometer along each sensitivity axis, suspended sensitive mass is connected to case with flexible no-moment current lead through power supply source creating positive potential on it with regard to point of vacuum tunnel pickup which value is less than that of output of electrons out of material of pickup point. Signal from pickup is sent to input of servo system from which output voltage is fed to immobile electrodes of electrostatic suspension. Accelerator incorporates case, insulation bushing, immobile electrode, sensitive mass, current lead, power supply source, vacuum tunnel pickup and servo system. EFFECT: increased sensitivity of accelerometer as compared with accelerometers with capacitive pickup. 1 dwg

Claims (1)

A multi-axis electrostatic accelerometer with a freely weighted sensitive mass and a vacuum tunnel sensor is offered. For this, a tunnel sensor, isolated from the housing and fixed electrodes, is installed in the central hole of the device along each sensitivity axis, the weighted sensitive mass is connected to the housing with a flexible, torqueless current supply through a power source, which creates a potential that is less relative to the tip of the vacuum tunnel sensor, than the work function of the electrons from the material of the tip of the sensor. The signal from the sensor is fed to the input of the tracking system, from the output of which voltage is supplied to the stationary electrodes of the electrostatic suspension.