Colibrys is a world-leading supplier of standard and customized MEMS-based motion sensors for high-precision and high-reliability military 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 measurement is extremely important and widely used in military aircraft-related applications. Examples of applications that require accelerometers include:
- Attitude heading reference systems (AHRS)
- Strap down inertial measurement units (SIMU)
- Aircraft navigation systems
- Flight control
- In-flight structural testing including flutter testing
- Aerospace testing
- Health usage monitoring system (HUMS)
- Stabilization
- Ground vibration testing (GVT) – wind tunnel testing
- Modal testing
- Landing gear response
- Active vibration damping
Accelerometers products and services
Colibrys is clearly committed to the military market and offers accelerometer products and services well beyond automotive specifications. Every sensor from Colibrys is designed for high-end specifications.
Colibrys typically produces several hundred-thousand accelerometers per year, differentiating themselves through their technical specifications: high stability, low noise, low power, low weight and size as well as high reliability for safety-critical applications. The commitment of the company to critical aerospace requirements such as MIL-standards qualifications, insurance of fixed design and long term guarantee of supply. As a mil/aerospace 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 our 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 our 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 measurements in Mil/Aerospace. 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). All our 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 products for tilt sensing.
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.
Vibration sensing products
Variable capacitance sensors can advantageously replace traditional piezo-resistive products in some specific Aerospace 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 aerospace, 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.
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.
Military Motion Sensors
Colibrys provides unique solutions for a wide range of high performance standard and semi-custom motion sensors for army and mil / aerospace technologies. Please don’t hesitate to contact us to know more about our current and future developments.