Force rebalance, whole angle, and self-calibration mechanization of silicon MEMS quad mass gyro

Abstract

This paper reports experimental demonstration and characterization of the MEMS Quadruple Mass Gyroscope (QMG) operated in three distinct mechanizations, namely force rebalance, whole angle, and virtual carouseling self-calibration. The three runtime interchangeable control modes are implemented using a custom standalone electronics suite running control firmware with a separate computer GVI for experiment control and data logging. The results of this work demonstrate that the Coriolis Vibratory Gyroscope (CVG) Class II theoretical framework developed by D.D. Lynch is directly applicable to MEMS devices and establishes a path for potentially groundbreaking improvement of their long term stability in support of inertial navigation through self-calibration. While the simple fabrication and outstanding measured characteristics of the QMG (Q>10 ⁶ , Δf<;0.2 Hz, τ>170 s, Δ(1/τ)<;10 ^-4 Hz) make it an ideal MEMS Class II CVG, a wide variety of other planar and 3-D mode-symmetric MEMS gyroscope resonators can leverage the developed approach, hardware, software, and analysis tools.