A surface acoustic wave gyro sensor

Abstract

This paper explains a novel method to measure an angular velocity by using a surface acoustic wave device. Coriolis forces act on the particles vibrating in the standing wave of the surface acoustic wave, but cancel one another. Distributed cyclic perturbation masses on the surface realize detection of angular velocity. The secondary SAW, which has some coherence, can be built up in the orthogonal direction of the primary standing wave. This novel gyro sensor was planned based on this principle. The optimization of the electrode dimensions was carried out by equivalent circuit analysis. The SAW gyro sensor using the Rayleigh wave which could propagate on a 128/spl deg/ Y-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ 3-inch wafer with operating frequency of 15 MHz was designed.