Design and validation of a high-voltage levitation circuit for electrostatic accelerometers

REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 84, 125004 (2013)

G. Li, S. C. Wu,a) Z. B. Zhou,b) Y. Z. Bai, M. Hu, and J. Luo
MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurements, School of Physics,Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, People’s Republic of China
(Received 12 September 2013; accepted 11 November 2013; published online 11 December 2013)

A simple high-voltage circuit with a voltage range of 0 to 900 V and an open-loop bandwidth of 11 kHz is realized by using an operational amplifier and a MOSFET combination. The circuit is used for the levitation of a test mass of 71 g, suspended below the top-electrodes with a gap distance of 57μm, so that the performance of an electrostatic accelerometer can be tested on the ground. The translation noise of the accelerometer, limited by seismic noise, is about 4 × 10−8 m/s2/Hz1/2 at0.1Hz, while the high-voltage coupling noise is one-order of magnitude lower. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4833398]