Mechanical model of a MEMS inertial rotational gyroscope

A MEMS inertial rotational gyroscope, able to measure the pitching speed, is presented in the paper. MEMS device normally includes two parts: mechanical and electronic (control system) part. In this paper the attention is focused on the mechanical part to obtain a predictable model that can be integrated with future model of the control system. The model response has been verified via both FEM model and experimental tests. The proposed MEMS gyroscope is made of vibrating masses suspended through micro-beams with respect to the substrate. To increase the sensitivity of the MEMS gyro (i.e. the displacement of the suspended masses), it has been decided to work at low pressure (26 Pa). For this reason, particular attention was paid to identify the parameters associated with the damping.