Advancement in the Mems Gyroscope from a Vibrating Tuning Fork to a Tuned Ring with Comb Electrodes

Within this paper we report on our development from a MEMS vibrating tuning fork gyroscope to a ring gyroscope with additional comb electrodes for enhanced sensitivity. Since we started from the classical tuning fork gyroscope, we combined elements from this topology with the typical ring structure. We have chosen the ring structure because of the inherent structural equality of the modes and its use for later advanced compensation techniques. This paper presents the design, fabrication and operation of this MEMS ring gyroscope. The results are extracted from measurements with our standard split-mode operation and a fully tuned FM operational mode with independently controlled superposed clockwise and counter clockwise modes.