Design and simulation of an angular-rate vibrating microgyroscope

摘要

Microgyroscopes have several potential applications in the aerospace, automotive, defense and bio-medical engineering. The present work provides a detailed account of the design and simulation for a typical high-resolution comb-driven capacitively-sensed microgyroscope fabricated from SOI 40 mum thick wafer. The results show that high sensitivity and resolution are possible by the use of a thicker device layer along with a larger sensing area. A thicker device layer not only increases sensitivity and resolution but also ensures higher pull-in voltages and lower pollution of sensing mode. Comparison of lumped mass/stiffness modeling versus finite element modeling, nonlinearity in the output response, electrostatic pull-in characteristics, and scaling characteristics of natural frequencies and pull-in voltages are some aspects that are discussed in detail. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.