MICROMECHANICAL INERTIAL SENSOR FOR MEASURING ROTATION RATES

摘要

A rotation rate sensor for sensing a rotationΩby which the sensor is rotated has a substrate and a driving and sensing arrangement located substantially flat in an X-Y plane above a substrate surface of the substrate and having a center. The driving and sensing arrangement has a drive mass and a sense mass that are arranged at different spacings from the center of the driving and sensing arrangement symmetrically about the center. The oscillation modes of the drive mass and the sense mass are partially transmittable onto one another and are partially decoupled. The rotationΩis sensed in that a tilting of the sense mass out of a surface plane of the driving and sensing arrangement is sensed. A first one of the drive and sense masses that has a greater spacing to the center is tilted under the effect of Coriolis force out of the surface plane The first one of the drive and sense masses is connected by symmetrically arranged external anchors to the substrate such that a restoring action for the tilting action of the first one of the drive and sense masses is assisted by the external anchors.