Patent ID: 7516660

Claim:
A convective accelerometer comprising: a sealed housing; a liquid agent comprising an electrolyte solution, wherein said liquid agent is contained in said sealed housing; an installation module secured in said sealed housing; a sensing element that detects convection of ions in the electrolyte solution, wherein said sensing element is fixed in said installation module and immersed in said liquid agent, wherein said sensing element comprises a plurality of metal plates and a plurality of dielectric spacers, wherein each metal plate and each dielectric spacer comprises a predetermined pattern of holes; wherein the holes of said dielectric spacers have a diameter between about one and about 300 microns; and wherein said metal plates and said dielectric spacers are arranged such that (1) adjacent metal plates are separated by a dielectric spacer with no gaps therebetween, (2) the holes of the dielectric spacers and the holes of the metal plates are coincident, such that holes of the dielectric spacers correspond one-to-one with the holes of the metal plates, and (3) the liquid agent flows through said holes of the dielectric spacers and said holes of the metal plates under conditions of forced convection caused by an acceleration applied to the convective accelerometer, and an electric circuit connected to said sensing element, wherein said electric circuit amplifies and processes the output signals generated by said sensing element.