The resonating star gyroscope

This paper introduces the resonating star gyroscope (RSG), a new vibratory shell-type structure for rate sensing. The structure formed as a merged superposition of two square shells, yields in-plane degenerate flexural modes that are used to sense z-axis rotation. A high aspect ratio polysilicon implementation utilizing the primary degenerate flexural modes of the gyroscope exhibits an open-loop rate sensitivity of 1.6mV/°/s. The Brownian noise floor of the sensor with a quality factor (Q) of 1500 and drive amplitude of 100nm is 0.03°/s/√Hz. The RSG may also function at higher-order flexural modes. A single crystal silicon design explores such an operation. Preliminary characterization results yield matched-mode operation and very high-Q higher-order degenerate flexural modes (Q∼100k).