A micromachined integrated gyroscope and accelerometer based on gas thermal expansion

Abstract

This paper reports a novel micromachined integrated gyroscope and accelerometer based on gas thermal expansion. Using gas movement induced by alternating heat expansion in a micro chamber instead of a solid proof mass movement, a new type of micro gyroscope with a wide-range rotation detectability incorporating with 1-axis acceleration sensing is accomplished. Experiments demonstrate a good linearity of the rotation output in response to the angular rate from -3000 °/s to +3000 °/s and the acceleration output in response to the acceleration in the range of ±1g, which validate the simultaneous measurements of 1-axis angular rate and 1-axis acceleration in one chip. Meanwhile, the coupling effects among 3-axis rotations and accelerations are investigated experimentally to demonstrate low coupling effect via using thermal expansion flow.