Performance of reinforced epoxy resin embedded MEMS accelerometers for IoT condition monitoring

IoT condition monitoring is becoming increasingly widespread. With the improvement of the performance of embedded microcontrollers, there is the possibility to increase the quantity of processed data as well as to process signals having higher bandwidths and resolution. An important aspect of IoT condition monitoring is the possibility of embedding the monitoring system in the monitored object as well as low cost. In this work the effect of embedding commercial MEMS accelerometer in filled resin is studied in terms of frequency response as a function of the geometry of the case and of the mechanical property of the epoxy resin. Resin embedding of accelerometers can be exploited in mechanical devices such as motors, gearboxes, actuators, where ad hoc housings can be realized in the structure to accommodate vibration sensors. In particular, the response of a low cost, wideband triaxial accelerometer, realized with three monoaxial devices ADXL 1005, was studied with finite element simulations and validated with measurements, adopting different filled epoxy resins.