Fiber Bragg grating accelerometer with enhanced sensitivity

A cantilever based optical accelerometer with enhanced performance characteristics has been proposed. The sensitivity of the accelerometer has efficiently been enhanced by about twice as compared to the conventional design by tailoring the effective distance between the sensor axis to the neutral axis of the cantilever. The sensitivity enhancement has been done without affecting the characteristic resonant frequency of the system. A sensitivity of about 450 pm/g is achieved for a specific cantilever-mass arrangement. The architecture requires much simpler design as compared to optical accelerometers based on similar working principle and having sensitivities of this order.