Fabrication and Characterization of High Performance Micro Impedance Inclinometer

In the study, a novel micro impedance inclinometer is presented, consisting of a glass substrate, Cr electrodes and a mercury pendulum. The output signal of the proposed inclinometer is read from the moving metal pendulum based on an LED array measurement scheme. A mercury pendulum mass is used for the inclinometer. The adhesion between the liquid metal and the substrate surface is reduced by etching or sandblasting the substrate surface. Experimental results show the developed inclinometer has a high angle resolution (0.3°), a rapid time response (385 ms) and a high repeatability (R² = 0.9988) with the A280# sandblasted substrate surface and the mercury pendulum of 360 μl. The developed inclinometer provide a simply yet high-performance solution for the inclination measurement.