Three-Dimensional Spherical Shell Resonator Gyroscope Fabricated Using Wafer-Scale Glassblowing

We report, for the first time, experimental demonstration of a 3-D spherical shell resonator microelectromechanical systems gyroscope fabricated using wafer-scale glassblowing. The gyroscope utilizes a 1-mm-diameter 10-μm-thick spherical isotropic shell surrounded by eight cofabricated satellite spheres serving as actuation and detection electrodes. To demonstrate functionality of the new device, a four-node wineglass mode at a 945-kHz frequency was utilized as the drive mode of a Coriolis vibratory gyroscope. The input rotation causes the transfer of energy from the drive mode to the sense mode, which is a complementary four-node wineglass mode oriented at a 45 ^° angle. Sense-mode vibrations were capacitively detected using cofabricated 3-D metal electrodes. Experimental characterization of the spherical shell gyroscope demonstrated a wide linear range of 1000^°/s, currently limited only by the experimental setup.