The basic performance requirements are detailed below. Input voltage can vary between 9 and 35 volts and protection against reverse polarity is built-in. The high voltage stage operates as a high voltage amplifier with a gain of 1000. Input signal are 0 to 2.5 volts, output is 0 to 2.5 kV. The output power rating is 20 watts. The control signal for the power supply is derived from an add-on daughter board.
Sensors are either an accelerometer or both an accelerometer and non-contact position sensor.
The accelerometer electronics are a series of operational amplifiers which function as signal conditioning, auto-nulling circuit, and filters. The dual sensor system is more complex taking into account a non-linear gain multiplier with position. Damper 1 produced a linear force versus velocity characteristic by using the conventional spring stack in conjunction with one orifice. Damper 2 produced an approximately square force characteristic with velocity from the dual orifice configuration. The design of the dampers overcomes the main limitation of the use of ER fluids, their low strength.