MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) accelerometers continue to make inroads in such applications as airbags, navigational systems, military applications and gaming devices. The application of MEMS accelerometers is expected to enter newer areas such as mobile devices such as cell phones for both civilian and military applications. However, these new applications pose aggressive performance requirements such as tunability of frequency range over a significantly wide bandwidth. A particular example relates to the needs of the next generation of commercial as well as military hand-held devices with navigational capabilities. This research concentrates on developing an accelerometer capable of detecting a quick movement (0.5g â?" 2.5g) as well as the zooming movement (0.1g â?" 0.5g). The MEMS accelerometer is named

WiBandAccelero and is tunable from tens of kHz to hundreds of kHz. The range is selected to cover tilt needs in both digital map navigational as well as mobile gaming applications. The tunability is achieved by the use of a series of embedded accelerometers of sequentially differing resonant frequency on a monolithic frame and a novel active structural re-configuration design. So far, we have accomplished the design to meet specs for mobile navigation systems. This was preceded by a large study of 50 individuals to determine statistical distribution of acceleration signatures. The study is now focusing on the design of the electronic and control systems. The extension of the tunability by 2 orders (1000 is certainly very significant progress with wide ranging implications. Further, we feel that this ongoing work in wide tunable accelerometers will open up new possibilities in personal mobile device applications for both civilian and military uses by introducing much wider bandwidth tunability unavailable so far.