Micromachined Cross-Hatch Vibratory Gyroscopes

摘要

One-axis and two-axis vibratory gyroscopes include a unitary resonator structure conceptually having four beams interconnected in a cross-hatch configuration. While each beam can be considered a unitary piece of material, each beam's attachment to two cross beams conceptually divides the resonant beam into a central section between the attachment points and two tail sections aft of the attachment points. The attachment points are preferably nodal points of the beam with respect to both a drive mode shape and a sense mode shape of the beam for the resonant mode in which the resonator is configured to operate. Thus, the location where two beams intersect is preferably a nodal point for both beams. The tail sections of each beam allow the resonant mode of the resonator to be carefully configured.

主权项

1. A gyroscope comprising:
a resonator having at least four beams coupled in a cross-hatch configuration in a device plane, the resonator including a first set of beams arranged parallel to a first axis in the device plane and a second set of beams arranged parallel to a second axis in the device plane normal to the first axis, each beam of the first set of beams coupled to at least two beams of the second set of beams at nodal points of said beam defined with respect to a first set drive mode shape and a first sense mode shape for said beam, said nodal points being remote from the ends of said beam such that said beam includes a tail portion at each end of said beam; a set of drive electrodes configured for driving the resonator into a drive mode that includes a fundamental or higher order flexural mode of the first set of beams, said fundamental or higher order flexural mode of the first set of beams defining the first set drive mode shape; and a set of sense electrodes configured for sensing deflections of at least one beam of the first set of beams caused by rotation of the gyroscope about the first axis, said deflections defining the first sense mode shape.