Silicon monolithic micromechanical gyroscope

A monolithic silicon gyroscope is described which is completely batch fabricated on a silicon wafer. Only one side of the wafer is employed so the process is readily adaptable to any size wafer. The gimbals, flexures, and electrodes are all made on the same substrate so that a mass-producible instrument is realized. The process is compatible with the use of on-chip electronics, which will be required to maximize the performance of the instrument. The authors describe several methods of incorporating the electrodes within the device substrate. They enumerate the advantages of the monolithic construction, and mention potential areas of application. Initial test data showed a noise-limited rate detection capability of 4 deg/s at a 1-Hz bandwidth.<>