What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Quartz Flexible Accelerometer?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Quartz Flexible Accelerometer?

A quartz flexible accelerometer is a high-precision sensors who main advantages are excellent long-term stability, high sensitivity, and low noise levels. However, compard to more modern MEMS Accelerometers (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Accelerometers), they are generally more expensive, larger, and consume more power.

Key Advantages

Quartz servo accelerometers, especially quartz flexible accelerometers, which are the preferred choice for high-end navigation applications like aerospace, defense, and inertial navigation due to the following benefits:

•  High Stability and Accuracy: Quartz accelerometers offer better long-term bias stability and monthly repeatability than most other types of accelerometers. Their bias repeatability as low as 10 μg to 50 μg over a month HTS-JA2 Quartz flexible accelerometer-China Professional Quartz Accelerometers supplier-Hitech Sensors Tech Co., Ltd, while other high accurate MEMS accelerometers approach 200μg.

•  Low Noise and High Resolution: Quartz acceletometers achieve extremely low noise levels, enabling the measurement of minute acceleration changes. These high precise quartz accelerometers offer resolution up to 5 μg.

•   Durability:Quartz accelerometers exhibit high environmental adaptability, including strong resistance to vibration and overload capacity.

•  Wide Operating Temperature Range: Many quartz flexible accelerometers can operate in harsh environments, with operating temperatures ranging from -55°C to 180°C HTS-JA6 Quartz flexture accelerometer-China Professional Quartz Accelerometers supplier-Hitech Sensors Tech Co., Ltd.

•  Performance Specifications: Quartz accelerometers feature high frequency response, low noise and built-in temperature compensation, resulting in more stable and superior performance.

•  Advantages Of Nature Materials: Quartz has naturally piezoelectric properties and a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion than metals, which efficiently reduces creep and hysteresis.

•  Self Diagnostic Functions: Quartz accelerometers typically configure with internal algorithms for automatic calibration and fault detection, which helps reduce long-term maintenance costs.

Key Disadvantages

Due to its high performance, quartz accelerometers have several drawbacks that limit their applications in the consumer electronics fields: 

•  High Manufacturing Cost: The complex structure and the high precision required in the manufacturing process make them significantly more expensive than MEMS accelerometers China Professional MEMS Accelerometers supplier-Hitech Sensors Tech Co., Ltd.

•  Large Size and Weight: They are generally bulkier and heavier, making them less suitable for space-constrained or weight-sensitive portable devices.

•  Limited Measurement Range: The measurement range is often restricted by the physical stiffness of the internal vibration beam, some models typically have a measurement range of no more than tens of Gs.

•  Fragility in High-G Environments: Without specialized hardening treatment, they are suspectible to stress damage under extremely high acceleration conditions.

•  Temperature Effects on Accuracy: Although they can operate over a wide temperature range, high temperatures can cause changes in the crystal structure, thus requiring complex temperature compensation to maintain accuracy.

Comparison Summary

Feature	Quartz Accelerometer	MEMS Accelerometer
Accuracy	Extremely High	Lower/Moderate
Cost	High	Low
Size/Weight	Large/Heavy	Miniature/Lightweight
Applications	Aerospace, Navigation	Consumer Electronics, Automotive