Bridging piezoelectric and electrostatic effects: a novel piezo-MEMS pitch/roll gyroscope with sub 10°/h bias instability

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel piezo-MEMS pitch/roll gyroscope that co-integrates piezoelectric and electrostatic effects, for the first time achieves electrostatic mode-matching operation for piezoelectric gyroscopes. Movement of operated out-of-plane (OOP) mode (n = 3) and in-plane (IP) mode (n = 2) are orthogonal, ensuring that the OOP amplitude is not significantly limited by parallel plates set at nodes of IP mode. Therefore, a large OOP driving amplitude actuated by piezoelectric and frequency tuning in the IP sense mode trimmed by electrostatic can be achieved together with a low risk of pull-in, hence releases the trade-off between the tuning range and the linear actuation range. At a tuning voltage of 66 V, the frequency split decreased from 171 Hz to 0.1 Hz, resulting in a 167x times improvement in sensitivity. The mode-matched gyroscope exhibits an angle random walk (ARW) of 0.41°/√h and a bias instability (BI) of 8.85°/h on a test board within a customized vacuum chamber, marking enhancements of 68x and 301x, respectively, compared to its performance under mode-mismatch conditions. The BI performance of the presented pitch/roll gyroscope is comparable to that of the highest-performing mechanically trimmed piezo-MEMS yaw gyroscopes known to date, while offering the unique advantage of lower cost, better mode-matching resolution, and the flexibility of real-time frequency control.