Precision Balance Method for Cupped Wave Gyro Based on Cup-bottom Trimming

The mechanical balance process is the key process to eliminate the quadrature error and improve the performance of the cupped wave gyro. The conventional mechanical balance method for cupped wave gyro based on cup-wall trimming requires high control accuracy of trimming quantity, which increases the production cost and decreases the fabrication efficiency in large extent. However, it is hard to reach the high balance accuracy with the natural frequency split of mHz grade by using the conventional method. In this paper, the lumped mass dynamic model of the cupped wave gyro is built by discretization method, and the effects of different position trimming on the natural frequency are analyzed. It is pointed out that trimming off a tiny quantity of material from cup-wall causes large variation of the natural frequency is the main reason for the low accuracy of the conventional mechanical balance method. Then, a precision balance method for cupped wave gyro based on cup-bottom trimming is presented and the entire procedures of this method are given. The static balance process and dynamic balance process of the precision balance method are simulated by the finite element software. The simulation result shows that the precision balance method based on cup-bottom trimming brings less additional natural frequency split in the static balance process, minimizes the natural frequency split to mHz grade and rectify the angle of mode offset to 0.1° grade in the dynamic balance process, furthermore, the method decreases the requirement for control accuracy of trimming quantity evidently. The research work provides references for structure optimization design and balance process plan of the cupped wave gyro.

Design and Characterization of a Novel Z-axis Quartz Cross-fork Micromachined Gyroscope

The existing researches on quartz gyroscope mainly focus on the structure design of the tuning fork, which aim at obtaining a better vibration characterization. However, the fabrication of complicated structure is a challenge for present processes, and the imperfect fabrication process seriously affects the performances of the sensors. In this paper, a novel quartz cross-fork structure micromachined gyroscope is proposed. The sensor has a simple structure in x-y plane of quartz crystal. Unlike other quartz gyroscopes, the proposed gyroscope is based on shear stress detection to sense Coriolis’ force rather than normal stress detection. This feature can simplify the sensing electrode patterns and miniaturize the structure easily. Then the mechanical analysis of the structure is discussed. In order to obtain high sensitivities and uniform characteristics between different structures, the sensing beam is designed to be tapered, and the taper should be appreciably greater than 1°. This scheme is validated by finite element analysis software. The dynamic characteristic of the structure is analyzed by lumped parameter model. The dynamic stress in the beam and the detection sensitivity are deduced to optimize the structure parameter of gyroscope. Finally, the gyroscope is fabricated by quartz anisotropic wet etching. The prototype is characterized as follows. The drive mode frequency is 13.38 kHz, and the quality factor is about 900 in air. The scale factor is 1.45 mV/（（°） s –1 ） and the nonlinearity is 3.6% in the dynamic range of ±200°/s. Process and test results show that the proposed quartz gyroscope can achieve a high performance at atmosphere pressure. The research can simplify the fabrication of the quartz gyroscope, and is taken as a novel method for the design of quartz gyroscope.