A high-g shock tester with one-level velocity amplifier

A simply constructed but efficacious shock tester is developed for screening or calibration of lightweight devices comprising micro-electro- mechanical systems (MEMS). The proposed shock tester provides a promising solution to the trade-off between cost-effective development and the demands on high-g shock testing devices. By incorporating material of high specific modulus and velocity gain achieved through collisions between vertically stacked masses, the shock tester achieves an acceleration range of about 100 000 g and features relative simplicity, low cost and small size compared with existing drop machines. The experiments were conducted based on a Brüel & Kjær (B&K) high-g accelerometer, the matching charge amplifier and a data acquisition system. The acceleration range, shock duration and reproducibility on given driving force were tested. The results show that the developed high-g shock tester has favorable properties that allow its use in demanding applications.