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

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 57 mu m, 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 x 10(-8) m/s(2)/Hz(1/2) at 0.1 Hz, while the high-voltage coupling noise is one-order of magnitude lower. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.