Self-calibration compatible Z-axis bulk PZT vibratory gyroscope

We report a laser micromachined piezoelectric bulk-PZT (Lead Zirconate Titanate) Z-axis Coriolis force gyroscope, which utilizes spring-mass resonances of the in-plane PZT bimorphs and a PZT proof-mass. The gyroscope is compatible to be monolithically integrated with a PZT dither stage for in-situ self-calibration. The design exploits the large piezoelectric coefficients and high mass density of bulk-PZT to obtain high sensitivity, even at low resonance quality factors, compared to other piezoelectric gyroscopes. The gyroscope provides high dynamic range owing to elimination of micro-gaps needed in capacitive transduction. The gyroscope has unamplified sensitivity of ~1.3μV/°/sec under mode-mismatched operation, at drive amplitude of 10V_p-p, drive resonance of 108.9 kHz, with electromechanical coupling factor k_t of ~0.15 and Q of ~100.