Accelerometer Designs

The basic function - converting mechanical acceleration into an electrical signal - is identical with all piezoelectric accelerometers. The reason for using different piezoelectric systems is their individual suitability for various measurement tasks and their varying sensitivity to environmental influences.
We employ the following three mechanical construction designs:

Shear system ("KS" typs)
Compression system ("KD" types)
Bending or flexure system ("KB" types)

The following table shows advantages and drawbacks of the 3 designs:

	Advantage	Drawback
Shear	Low temperature transient sensitivity Low base strain sensitivity	Lower sensitivity
Compression	High sensitivity Robustness Technological advantages	High temperature transient sensitivity High base strain sensitivity
Bending	Best sensitivity-to-mass ratio	Fragile Relatively high temperature transient sensitivity

Shear design is applied in the major part of modern accelerometers due to its better performance. Compression and bending type sensors are still used in many applications, however.

The main components of the 3 accelerometer designs are shown in the following illustrations:

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