Gytrix, a novel axisymmetric quartz MEMS gyroscope for navigation purpose

Abstract

This paper reports a novel axisymmetric quartz MEMS gyroscope, named GYTRIX, able to work -for the first time to our knowledge- as a whole angle gyro. The proposed GYTRIX cell differs from the state of the art by the use of balanced vibration modes, naturally decoupled from the support, and a very simple and pure axisymmetric design, implementing an original principle of decoupling of the useful modes, which gives the resonators very high quality factors. As a proof of concept, the gyroscope presented is designed to operate in open-loop mode in order to facilitate the first characterizations of the cell. Thanks to its symmetry, isotropy and high quality factor, the gyroscope characteristics give up towards a theoretical angular random walk of 0.003°/√h and a bias stability better than 0.1°/h.