Energy Loss Mechanisms in a Bulk-Micromachined Tuning Fork Gyroscope

This paper presents an analytical and experimental study of energy loss mechanisms in a bulk-micromachined tuning fork gyroscope. An exact solution to TED in such devices is obtained and its Debye peak is identified. Compared with its counterpart in a beam resonator of same dimensions, the Debye peak is shifted by a proof mass. For the current design and fabrication process, the measured data from four batches prove that TED is a dominant loss source. Batch-to-batch variation in the combination of support loss and surface loss indicates that surface loss is comparable to support loss.