A single-crystal silicon symmetrical and decoupled gyroscope on insulating substrate

Alper S., Akin T.

12th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS 03), Massachusetts, United States Of America, 8 - 12 June 2003, pp.1399-1402 identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Doi Number: 10.1109/sensor.2003.1217036
  • City: Massachusetts
  • Country: United States Of America
  • Page Numbers: pp.1399-1402
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper presents a single-crystal silicon symmetrical and decoupled (SYMDEC) gyroscope implemented using dissolved wafer process on an insulating substrate. The symmetric structure allows matched resonant frequencies for the drive and sense vibration modes for high rate sensitivity and low temperature-dependent drift, while the decoupled drive and sense modes prevents unstable operation due to mechanical coupling, achieving a low bias drift. The 12-15mum-thick single-crystal silicon structural layer with an aspect ratio about 10 using DRIE patterning provides a high sense capacitance of 130fF, while the insulating substrate provides a low parasitic capacitance of only 20fF. Drive and sense mode resonance frequencies of the gyroscope are measured to be 39,010Hz and 38,570Hz, respectively. Measurement results reveal that the gyroscope provides a rate sensitivity of 0.01 deg/sec in 50Hz bandwidth at vacuum.