Silicon Designs Introduces Industry-Exclusive Low-Cost Best-in-Class MEMS Inertial Accelerometer

Silicon Designs, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of industrial grade MEMS variable capacitive accelerometer chips and modules, today announced the North American market introduction of its new Model 1525 Series, a low-cost, integral inertial accelerometer family, now available for immediate customer shipment.

Offering industry best-in-class low-noise performance, the nitrogen damped and hermetically sealed SDI Model 1525 Series is expressly designed for tactical navigation, seismic, and other zero-to-medium frequency instrumentation applications that require high-repeatability, low noise, and maximum stability. Each miniature, hermetically sealed package combines a MEMS variable capacitive sense element and a custom integrated circuit that includes both a sense amplifier and ±4.0V differential output stage. Units are available in six unique full-scale ranges from ±2 g to ±100 g, with reliable performance over a standard operating temperature range of -40° C to +85° C. Series units are also relatively insensitive to wide temperature changes and gradients.

Each device is marked with a serial number on its top and bottom surfaces for traceability. A calibration test sheet is supplied with each unit, showing measured bias, scale factor, linearity, operating current, and frequency response. With their low cost, high-performance, and industry best-in-class performance, the SDI 1525 Series is ideal for commercial and tactical guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) applications, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV), Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Robotic Control systems, as well as agricultural, oil and gas drilling, photography, and meteorological drones.

Silicon Designs MEMS sensing technologies also support a wide range of additional equipment and applications, including crash event detection, downhole vibration, automotive testing, motorsport, shipping container monitoring, airplane flutter testing, turbine engine precession, and the structural integrity monitoring of bridges, hydroelectric power generators, and wind farm turbines. All SDI products are 100% made in the USA at the company's Kirkland, Washington corporate headquarters and are further supported by an extensive global sales and distribution network.

Based outside of Seattle, Washington, the 100% veteran owned Silicon Designs specializes in the design, development and manufacture of high-reliability MEMS variable capacitive chips and accelerometers. On-board voltage regulation and an internal reference minimize temperature and voltage changes while eliminating additional external power regulation requirements. Carefully regulated manufacturing processes ensure that each sensor is made to be virtually identical, allowing users to swap out parts in the same g range with few to no testing modifications, further saving time and resources.  This also provides test engineers with a quick plug-and-play solution for almost any application, with total trust in sensor accuracy when used within published specifications.

As the OEM of its own MEMS VC accelerometer chips and modules, Silicon Designs is able to ensure quality, offer custom design, and still keep prices highly competitive. Standard MEMS variable capacitive accelerometers are available in ranges from 2 g to 400 g, and most Silicon Designs MEMS accelerometers can continue to operate after limited exposures of up to 10,000 g and temperatures above +200°C. For more information about the new SDI Model 1525 or other offerings from Silicon Designs, visit www.silicondesigns.com.