Monolithic Cylindrical Fused Silica Resonators with High Q Factors.

Yao Pan,Jianping Liu,Yanyan Wang,Dongya Wang,Hui Luo,Kaiyong Yang,Suyong Wu,Tianliang Qu

doi:10.3390/s16081185

Yao Pan, Jianping Liu + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081185

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Abstract

The cylindrical resonator gyroscope (CRG) is a typical Coriolis vibratory gyroscope whose performance is determined by the Q factor and frequency mismatch of the cylindrical resonator. Enhancing the Q factor is crucial for improving the rate sensitivity and noise performance of the CRG. In this paper, for the first time, a monolithic cylindrical fused silica resonator with a Q factor approaching 8 × 105 (ring-down time over 1 min) is reported. The resonator is made of fused silica with low internal friction and high isotropy, with a diameter of 25 mm and a center frequency of 3974.35 Hz. The structure of the resonator is first briefly introduced, and then the experimental non-contact characterization method is presented. In addition, the post-fabrication experimental procedure of Q factor improvement, including chemical and thermal treatment, is demonstrated. The Q factor improvement by both treatments is compared and the primary loss mechanism is analyzed. To the best of our knowledge, the work presented in this paper represents the highest reported Q factor for a cylindrical resonator. The proposed monolithic cylindrical fused silica resonator may enable high performance inertial sensing with standard manufacturing process and simple post-fabrication treatment.

Highlights

Coriolis vibratory gyroscopes (CVGs), especially those with axisymmetric shell resonators, are known for their outstanding capabilities of high accuracy, long durability, considerable reliability, low power consumption, short start-up time, high shock and acceleration resistance, etc
Results showed that the Qfactor improves significantly, especially after the first etching round, when the Q factor improves by 78.7% and the resonant frequency decreased by 2.40%, while the etching depth is 16.9μm
The surface roughness of resonator CR01 before and after chemical etching is depicted in Figure 7, which clearly shows the degradation of the resonator surface

Summary

Introduction

Coriolis vibratory gyroscopes (CVGs), especially those with axisymmetric shell resonators, are known for their outstanding capabilities of high accuracy, long durability, considerable reliability, low power consumption, short start-up time, high shock and acceleration resistance, etc. The well-known hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) has claimed 30 million hours of continuous operation without a single mission failure [1]. Because this technology is complicated and rather expensive, researchers have tried to find acceptable compromise between cost and performance. The cylindrical resonator is the core component for CRGs with various applications where GPS may not be available, including inertial navigation systems, flight control systems, aircraft monitoring and maintenance, airborne platform stabilization, oil and gas platform stabilization, unmanned ground vehicles, north finding and automated guided vehicles, etc.

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