Silicon angular rate sensor for automotive applications with piezoelectric drive and piezoresistive read-out

In this work a silicon angular rate sensor for automotive applications with a new architecture is presented. It is based on the vibrating tuning fork principle with excitation direction of the tines perpendicular to the wafer surface. This arrangement allows the design of tines with significant inertial masses which lead to substantial signal. The oscillation of the tines is excited by a piezoelectric drive using an AlN thin film layer. The angular rate to be measured causes a torsional oscillation of the stem. The torsional amplitude is proportional to the angular rate and is measured by a piezoresistive read-out structure. We use silicon bulk micromachining based on a new twofold SOI-technique.