What's the Difference Between Capacitive and Thermal Inclination

Sensors ?
Engineers developing heavy equipment such as tractors, cranes, wood chippers, and
construction equipment need to include incline sensors and indicatorsboth to
ensure that workers do not operate the equipment in unsafe locations and to prevent
their equipment from tipping over during use. They also have to be assured that the
sensors will work despite vibrations and shocks (common conditions for offroad
equipment).
These sensors, which are based on accelerometers, must also function reliably
despite high shocks and vibrations. But there are generally two types of
accelerometers currently availablecapacitor based and thermal versionsand both
are microelectromechanical devices (MEMS). So whats the difference between the
two?

These sensors, which are based on accelerometers, must also function reliably
despite high shocks and vibrations. But there are generally two types of
accelerometers currently availablecapacitor based and thermal versionsand both
are microelectromechanical devices (MEMS). So whats the difference between the
two?
To select the right accelerometer for the application, engineers must consider several
design variables. These include structure, resonance, reliability, stability, bandwidth,
power consumption, and cost. Designers also need to understand the key principles
of each device and how it measures inclination.

Accelerometers and Tilt

Accelerometers on heavy equipment measure tilt and roll, just as they do in aircraft.
The devices can use two (2D or dualaxis) or three (3D or threeaxis) orthogonal axes.
They measure the acceleration due to gravity, then calculate inclination from the
amount of acceleration due to gravity measured on the axes.
A 2D accelerometer can measure both pitch and roll, and the acceleration measured
on the inclined axis is a function of sine of the angle. This limits its theoretical usable
range to 0 < 90, but in actual use, the limit shrinks to 0 70 because the sine
function starts to flatten out as it approaches 90. However, a 2D accelerometer can
measure pitch or roll through a range of 0 180.
It takes a 3D or two 2D accelerometers to measure pitch and roll over the full range
of an objects orientation with respect to gravityi.e., 0 90 of pitch and 0 180 of
roll. In most cases, a pair of 2D accelerometers are a better option than a 3D version
because many 3D devices have degraded performance on the Z axis.

Capacitive and Thermal

A 3D capacitive accelerometer contains a cantilevered beam, and calculates
acceleration by measuring the force gravity exerts on it. Acceleration due to gravity
causes bends the beam and makes it change position relative to two fixed
electrodes. This changes the capacitance between the electrodes the change is
proportional to the acceleration.

A 2D thermal accelerometer uses a monolithic approach that combines the sensor

and electronics onto an IC, which is hermetically sealed. The IC (above image)
includes a heating element and a pair of thermopiles all suspended over a cavity
etched into the chips surface. The thermopiles measure the movement gas
molecules warmed by the heating element to detect acceleration. When there is
acceleration, heated molecules move in the direction of acceleration, and with zero
acceleration the heated gas is symmetrical dispersed around heater.

Key Differences
Capacitive sensors use a cantilevered beam with moving parts. They are inherently
wideband transducers (>5 kHz), with a mechanical resonant frequency near 2 kHz for
low-g devices used to detect and measure inclination.

When vibration energy is greater than the capability of the sensor or near its
resonant frequency, it can experience clipping or sensor resonance. In some cases,
clipping or resonance may cause a large DC offset shiftparticularly on the Z-axis,
making it impossible for the sensor to recover the signal in high vibration
environments. This is an inherent disadvantage of capacitive accelerometers in high
vibration environments. To compensate for it, engineers can try a variety of
mitigation techniques to isolate vibrations from the sensor.
However, in some environments, the vibration can be too large to eliminate.
One mitigation approach to isolate the accelerometer from the vibration is to
suspend the accelerometer on rubber bushings, or springs and dampers. Another
approach is to use a less sensitive device with stiffer
cantilever beams, which will give the sensor a higher resonant frequency and the
ability to withstand larger mechanical shocks and vibration. But these techniques add
cost, sacrifice performance, and require a longer design times, which could affect
time to market and product launch deadlines. It also makes the sensor less reliable.
Even if vibrations can be lowered to a level that lets the capacitive sensor function
properly, there is still the issue of aliasing to address. The sensors wide bandwidth
will let higher frequency vibrations alias (downconvert) into measurements and
degrade them. To get around this, engineers can employ heavy oversampling and
more microprocessor horsepoweri.e., a more expensive processor to apply heavy
DSP filtering to remove the out-of-band energy and prevent the aliasing. Mechanical
shocks and impacts also affect aliasing and resonance in capacitive sensors. A
mechanical shocka high-magnitude, shortduration eventcontains a wide range of
frequencies. If the shock packs enough energy at or near the sensors resonance
frequency, it will send the sensor into resonance, rendering it unable to make
accurate measurements.
Mechanical shock, if it is strong enough, causes stiction in capacitive sensors. Stiction
makes cantilevered beams stick to each other if they touch it is a property of
extremely small structures. If the beams get stuck together, the sensors output
remains constant. Extreme shock can move beams past their mechanical stops and
damage them. Mechanical shocks can also cause capacitive sensors to become
uncalibrated by changing the devices zero g bias or its sensitivity.

In comparison, thermal sensors use the movement of heat to measure acceleration

and this acts like a front-end low-pass filter, mitigating vibrations and shocks. For
example, MSC6244AT features excellent low-pass filter response (10 Hz/3db) and
integrated 2nd order filtering to further attenuate out-of-band vibration, thanks to the
thermal sensor. This results in a more accurate inclination measurement that can be
determined without consuming computing power from the processor.
Capacitance-based inclination sensors for high-vibration environments require a twodie manufacturing approach to build a deviceone for the sensing element and
another for the ASIC. In most cases, the sensing-element dies is much larger than the
ASIC die.

Tale of the Tape

A thermal sensor combines the sensor and electronics on a single IC, resulting in a
smaller and more reliable device. The integration of sensor and electronics also
translates into less costly manufacturing and simpler.

Together, the monolithic design and lack of cantilevers of thermal sensors translates
into high shock survivability and best-in-class reliability (repeatability). With no
moving parts, the thermal device exhibits no variance due to shock and vibration
that could affect any stored calibration.
Thermal MEMS devices also exhibit no measureable resonance, delivering immunity
to vibration no temperature hysteresis, excellent zero-g offset stability and 50,000g
shock tolerance, all of which contribute to the devices reliability.
Capacitive inclination sensors, on the other hand, use less powera major advantage
for power critical applications such as battery-operated devices. In fact, they
consume an order of magnitude less power than thermal sensors that typically use 3
milliwatts of power. Thats because it takes current to generate the heat in the
thermal sensors.
Capacitive accelerometers also have higher bandwidthsan advantage for higher
frequency applications, typically above 100 Hzfor high-g sensing applications such
as crash detection for airbag deployment. In these cases, the sensor needs the wide
bandwidth and high-g capability offered by the capacitive transducer.