Foucault pendulum on a chip: Rate integrating silicon MEMS gyroscope

We report detailed characterization of a vacuum sealed rate integrating silicon MEMS gyroscope. The new gyroscope utilizes geometrically symmetric, dynamically balanced quadruple mass architecture, which provides a combination of maximized quality (Q) factors and isotropy of both the resonant frequency and damping. The vacuum sealed SOI prototype with a 2 kHz operational frequency demonstrated virtually identical X- and Y-mode Q-factors of 1.2 million. Due to the stiffness and damping symmetry, and low energy dissipation, the gyroscope can be instrumented for direct angle measurements with fundamentally unlimited rotation range and bandwidth. Experimental characterization of the mode-matched gyroscope operated in whole-angle mode confirmed linear response in a +/- 450 degrees/s range and 100 Hz bandwidth (limited by the experimental setup), eliminating both bandwidth and range constraints of conventional open-loop Coriolis vibratory rate gyroscopes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.