COLIBRYS (SWITZERLAND) LTD - MEMS Accelerometers, High End motion sensors, Capacitive Accelerometers, Vibration Sensors, Seismic Sensors

Colibrys is a world-leading supplier of standard and customised MEMS-based high end motion sensors for high precision and high reliability applications in harsh environments (Military, Aerospace and Energy) and safety critical (Industrial and Instrumentation) applications.
We design, develop and produce a range of proprietary, high-performance MEMS accelerometers for inertial, tilt, vibration and seismic measurements.

MEMS Accelerometers

For Industrial & Instrumentation applications

The industrial & Instrumentation market includes a very wide range of applications. Colibrys propose its full range of high-end accelerometers to meet the diversity of applications from the Industrial & Instrumentation market such as:

• Railway technology
• Structural Health Monitoring
• Seismic monitoring
• Automotive testing
• Aircraft & helicopter testing
• Mining
• Process control

Capacitive accelerometers

The solution

A wide range of sensors are used throughout the Industrial & Instrumentation market for all types of applications including safety, testing, certification, condition monitoring, preventive maintenance, comfort improvement or dynamic compensation. Whether it is for trains, cars, trucks, planes, machinery or large structures such as buildings or bridges, Colibrys motion sensors offer a solution.

Variable capacitance sensors offer benefits as a replacement for traditional piezo-resistive products in some specific applications. For a given acceleration range and bandwidth, the capacitive sensor offers a lower noise floor and a much better stability over temperature and over time. VS9000 products from Colibrys are the best products for vibration sensing, which requires small size and weight, wide bandwidth and an extended g range over a large temperature band, combined with the stability and reliability required for safety-critical applications.

Vibration sensors

For Railway technology

The push towards high-speed trains in Europe and Asia has led to many innovations including the magneto levitation train where sensors are used to precisely control under all failure conditions the height of the coaches over the magnetic field.

Tilting and high speed trains require precise acceleration measurement and tilt stabilization to ensure passenger comfort and/or to monitor vibration and bogie conditioning thereby to assist in preventative maintenance and health usage monitoring and planning (HUMS).

Colibrys’ MEMS capacitive sensors are already well recognized for their high reliability in harsh environment and have already been successfully qualified for safety critical railway applications. The latest important integration of Colibrys MEMS capacitive accelerometers has been in the innovative bogie monitoring system for Velaro D high-speed trains made by Siemens Mobility.

Typical applications are:

• High-speed tilt train control to improve riding comfort
• Bogie monitoring and diagnostics for security and comfort
• Position monitoring for magnetic levitation train control system
• Track monitoring for safety and maintenance
• Precise train positioning
• Shock monitoring during transportation

Seismic Sensors

for Structural Health Monitoring and seismic monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring systems are increasingly being installed throughout the world most especially in areas vulnerable to high levels of seismic activity but also within large structures subject to sub-surface landslip, mining, or externally induced stress and vibration.

Strong Motion seismic sensor technology is evolving in respond to these emerging demands with traditional Electromechanical FBAs being increasingly displaced by more cost effective, more robust MEMS based sensors.

In California as in Chile there are buildings equipped with Colibrys sensors to confirm their structural integrity after an earthquake.

In more and more seismically sensitive parts of the world seismic sensors mounted in buildings, bridges, dams, levees, rail tracks or tunnels will alert and inform emergency intervention services where any natural disaster has had maximum impact and help prioritize call out services in the worst areas.

Typical applications:

• Bridges, dams, levees, roads, nuclear plants, buildings, wind turbines monitoring
• Subsidence of mines, buildings
• Structural testing
• Failure analysis
• Seismic monitoring
• Quality assurance

Low power consumption, higher quality sensors remain the key challenge today. Therefore Colibrys seismic sensors are the perfect products for very low signal measurement in seismic applications.

High end motion sensors

For Test & Measurement and R&D purposes

Test and measurement applications require high performance sensors which special features such as high temperature, high sensitivity, broader frequency, accuracy, robustness and DC coupled.

Colibrys motion sensors are based on MEMS technology and designed for high-end requirements: high stability, low noise, low power, low weight and size, as well as high reliability. Colibrys offer a full range of products from ± 2g to ±200g and all our products are extensively qualified and available for temperature ranges between -55°c to + 125°C at least.

VS9000 products from Colibrys are already extensively used for automotive and aircraft & helicopter testing by our T & M customers.

Typical automotive applications are:

• Vehicle dynamics
• Vehicle ride quality – road inputs
• Vehicle durability testing
• Ride comfort/stability - in vehicle
• Crash testing

Typical aerospace applications are:

• Flight and ground test
• Aircraft and helicopter structural analysis
• Aircraft flutter testing
• Active vibration damping in helicopters