A micro-machined vibrating ring gyroscope with highly symmetric structure for harsh environment

Abstract

We present a novel micro-machined vibrating ring gyroscope (MVRG) with highly symmetric structure in order to improve its robustness in harsh environment such as vibration, high or low temperature and so on. The MVRG designed consists of a ring and eight "M" type supporting beams with centralsymmetried structure. FEM analysis was carried out to verify that the MVRG designed can withdraw the harsh environments under different temperatures and accelerometers. MEMS bulk silicon processes on a single crystal silicon wafer were used to simplify the fabrication processes. Characteristic tests demonstrate that the MVRG fabricated can work under atmosphere with better performance. Moreover, it is less sensitive to environmental temperature, which is consistent with the FEM analysis.