±2ppm frequency drift and 300x reduction of bias drift of commercial 6-axis inertial measurement units using a low-power oven-control micro platform

The performance of a commercial 6-axis (3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope) MEMS inertial measurement unit (IMU) has been improved by a factor of >300x by utilizing a low-power ovenized microsystem. The IMU is thermally isolated from the external ambient by mounting it on a custom-designed micro-machined glass platform and packaging it in vacuum. In the present study, a microcontroller and voltage-controlled current source are assembled together with the thermally-isolated packaged IMU on a printed circuit board. The entire system is thermal-cycled over a temperature span from -40°C to 85°C. Both temperature control (i.e., ovenization) and compensation are used to reduce bias drift due to temperature change. The measured frequency drift of the IMU is improved by a factor of 950x and stabilized to ±2ppm, and the bias drift of the IMU is reduced to 60 °/hr for one of the gyroscope axes, and 1.7 mg for one of the accelerometer axes.