Micro-seismometers via Advanced Mesoscale Fabrication

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) seeks revolutionary innovations with respect to miniature seismic sensors for the monitoring of nuclear detonations. Specifically, the performance specifications are to be consistent with those obtainable by only an elite few products available today, but with orders of magnitude reduction in size, weight, power, and cost. The proposed innovation calls upon several advanced fabrication methods and read-out technologies being pioneered by Silicon Audio, including the combination of silicon microfabrication, advanced meso-scale fabrication and assembly, and the use of advanced photonics-based displacement/motion-detection methods. Successful implementation will result in a commercial product roughly the size of a common USB flash drive with the ability to address advanced national security needs of the DOE/NNSA. Additional commercial market sectors include military/defense, scientific/instrumentation, oil and gas exploration, and inertial navigation. 2008 Monitoring Research Review: Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Technologies