Design and simulation of a new decoupled micromachined gyroscope

Abstract

This paper reports on a new decoupled micromachined gyroscope. The proposed sensor is a dual mass type, electrostatically driven to primary mode oscillation and senses, capacitively, the output signal. Full decoupling between drive and sense modes minimizes the mechanical crosstalk. Three different designs are introduced in this work. Drive and sense amplitudes, mechanical and electrical sensitivities, quality factors and approximate bandwidths are extracted analytically and the results are confirmed using finite element analysis. The first design shows drive and sense modes resonance frequencies of 4077 Hz and 4081 Hz respectively; with a frequency mismatch lower than 0.1%. The drive and sense capacitance are 0.213 pF and 0.142 pF respectively. The mechanical and electrical sensitivities are 0.011 νm/ (°/s) and 2.75 mV/ (°/s) respectively. The third design shows significantly improved mechanical and electrical sensitivities of 0.027 νm/ (°/s) and 6.85 mV/ (°/s) respectively. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.