A New Stress-Released Structure to Improve the Temperature Stability of the Butterfly Vibratory Gyroscope.

Fenlan Ou,Tongqiao Miao,Xuezhong Wu,Dingbang Xiao,Zhanqiang Hou

doi:10.3390/mi10020082

Abstract

This paper is devoted to discussing the influence of thermal stress on the performance of the Butterfly Vibratory Gyroscope (BFVG). In many gyroscopes, due to the material properties and the fabrication processes, the deformation caused by residual stress or thermal mechanical stress is of great concern since it directly affects the performance. Here, a new stress-released structure was proposed to reduce the deformation to improve BFVG’s performance considering the symmetry of the electrode and the miniaturization of the structure. Its dimensional parameters relate to the effect of thermal stress release and the stiffness characteristics of the BFVG’s oblique beam. The single parameter analysis method was used to explore the influence of the parameters on the effect of thermal stress release to guide the optimal size of the final design. The effect of thermal stress release in the BFVG at the full range temperature was also tested after the fabrication. The results showed that the influence of thermal stress on the BFVG’s performance effectively reduced.

Highlights

Micro-machined vibratory gyroscopes are important components in inertial navigation systems, which are widely used in both military and civil fields [1,2]
The optimal design of the stress-released structure is the most convenient and effective method to improve the Butterfly Vibratory Gyroscope (BFVG), the Sensonor (Sensonor is a Norwegian company specializing in the development and production of high-precision gyroscopes.) has etched holes through the mass in order to decrease the damping effects, and increase the Q-factors [26]
This design causes the asymmetry of the electrode and mass which can affect the performance of the gyroscope

Summary

Introduction

Micro-machined vibratory gyroscopes are important components in inertial navigation systems, which are widely used in both military and civil fields [1,2]. The optimal design of the stress-released structure is the most convenient and effective method to improve the BFVG, the Sensonor (Sensonor is a Norwegian company specializing in the development and production of high-precision gyroscopes.) has etched holes through the mass in order to decrease the damping effects, and increase the Q-factors [26]. This design causes the asymmetry of the electrode and mass which can affect the performance of the gyroscope. The performance test confirmed that the new stress-released structure will reduce the effect of thermal stress on the gyroscope’s performance

Thermal Stress Analysis

Thermal Stress of the BFVG

Conclusions