Patent ID: 9285390
Filing Date: 2016-03-15
CPC Classification: G01P

Claim Text:
1. An accelerometer system comprising: a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) configured to oscillate between emitting an optical beam at a first linear polarization and emitting the optical beam at a second linear polarization perpendicular to the first linear polarization in response to the VCSEL receiving a reflected optical beam; an optical cavity system comprising a mirror that is coupled to an accelerometer housing via a spring and is configured to reflect the optical beam to provide the reflected optical beam, the optical cavity system also comprising at least one photodetector configured to receive at least a portion of at least one of the optical beam and the reflected optical beam to generate an acceleration signal based on the oscillation between the first linear polarization and the second linear polarization that is indicative of motion of the mirror resulting from an external acceleration acting upon the accelerometer housing; and an acceleration processor configured to calculate a magnitude of the external acceleration based on the acceleration signal.