COLIBRYS (SWITZERLAND) LTD. - MOTION SENSORS, ACCELEROMETERS, INERTIAL, TILT SENSORS, HARSH ENVIRONMENT

Colibrys is a world-leading supplier of standard and customized MEMS-based motion sensors for high-precision and high-reliability Military and Aerospace as well as Energy and Instrumentation applications. Its primary activity is the design, development and production of a range of proprietary high-performances MEMS accelerometers for inertial, tilt, vibration and seismic measurements.

Accelerometers for military / aerospace application
The measurement of a motion through acceleration, tilt or vibration is extremely important and widely used in a wide range of defence applications. Typical examples of applications that require accelerometers include:

• Attitude heading reference systems (AHRS)
• Strap down inertial measurement units (SIMU)
  • UAV
  • Short / medium range missiles
  • Smart munitions
  • Helicopters
  • Planes
• Aircraft, land, sea and sub-sea navigation systems
• Flight control
• Aerospace testing
• Health usage monitoring system (HUMS)
• Stabilization
  • Platforms
  • Antenna
  • Canons
• Ground vibration testing (GVT) - wind tunnel testing
• Intelligent soldiers programs
• Unattended ground sensors and border security
• And many others

Accelerometers products and services
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Colibrys is clearly committed to the military and aerospace markets and offers accelerometer products and services well beyond automotive specifications and every sensor from Colibrys is designed for high-end specifications.

Colibrys typically produces several hundred-thousand accelerometers per year, differentiating themselves from competition through their technical specifications: very high stability, low noise, low weight and size as well as compatibility to harsh environments and high reliability for safety-critical applications. Colibrys fully commits to critical aerospace requirements such as MIL-standards qualifications, insurance of long term fixed design and guarantee of supply. As a defence supplier, Colibrys is very sensitive to export regulation and insuring worldwide delivery of ITAR-free products.

Inertial sensing products
The long-term stability, low vibration rectification error and reliability of its MEMS capacitive accelerometers are continuously improved to meet the increasing needs of inertial measurement unit (IMU) and attitude-heading and reference system (AHRS) products. The new MS9000 and the MS8000 products families are the best candidates for inertial sensing as its seismic sensors SF1500 and SF2005 can be used for very low signal measurements in homeland security applications.

A large selection of products is generally used for inertial and seismic measurements. Colibrys offers a full range of products from 2g to 200g with some dedicated products for gun hard applications (i.e. shocks larger than 20,000g for smart munitions) and tilt sensors. All its products are extensively qualified and available for temperature ranges between -55°C to +125°C.

Low g inertial sensors, due to their high resolution, high temperature stability and low power consumption, are extremely good as tilt sensors. These tilt sensors offer large sensitivity range even in harsh environments.

Accelerometers for harsh environments
Smart munitions and missiles are increasingly incorporating inertial measurement units for guidance of short range weapon systems. In addition to usual high-performance of the required sensors, namely, accelerometers and gyros, this application requires sensors with high shock survivability and post shock stability of the sensors.

Colibrys has successfully developed a gun-hard version of its accelerometer product and in collaboration with one of its strategic customers has integrated these acceleration sensors with rate gyro to a gun-hard IMU. The IMU has been extensively tested and characterized over the full temperature range, through Aerobutt and in many live shooting trials. The extreme shock performance of the IMU has been maintained by making the accelerometer shock resistant. This approach has resulted in excellent post shock performance of the acceleration sensor. This specific product is the HS8000, which is also available in a smaller HS9000 version.

Accelerometers for AHRS
An attitude heading reference system (AHRS) is a particular inertial navigation system, combined of three-axis sensors (self-contained accelerometers and gyros) that provide heading, attitude and yaw information for aircraft or any subject moving in free space or under water. In general, the role of accelerometers in an AHRS application is to provide with initial attitude reference (levelling) and attitude corrections during the flight by correcting the gyro drift.

The main accelerometer parameters essential to optimum AHRS performance are bias stability, scale factor stability, axis misalignment and its stability and, second order linearity effects or VRC (vibration rectification coefficient). Colibrys offers MS8010.D and MS9010.D as ideal products for AHRS and is continuously working on new improved versions, providing further capabilities.

Vibration sensing products
Variable capacitance sensors can advantageously replace traditional piezo-resistive products in some specific applications. For a given acceleration range and bandwidth, the capacitive sensor offers a lower noise floor and a much better stability over time and over temperature. New VS9000 products from Colibrys are the best adapted products for vibration sensing in defence industry, which requires small size and weight, wide bandwidth and extended g range over a large temperature range, combined with high stability and high reliability required by the safety critical aspect of the applications.

Motion Sensors for Defence Industry
Colibrys provides unique solutions for a wide range of high performance standard and semi-custom motion sensors for the defence industry.