Improved Dual-Axis Micro Gyroscope Using a Commercially Available Fabrication Processes

A second generation ITRI micro gyroscope design is designed, fabricated, and tested. Major improvements over the original design include using thin film metallization techniques to increase the proof mass to 9.32 times 10^-7g for the 500 times 500 mum² gyro structure, and demonstrating an integrated package with a CMOS ASIC die. The custom-built, capacitance-to-voltage converter ASIC has a calculated noise floor of 6.5times10_-7 V/Hz-² at 19 KHz, a full-scale range of 5 fF, and a target resolution of 5 aF. The gyroscope has a fundamental actuation frequency at 4.33 KHz, with a quality factor of 22.5 under atmospheric conditions