A Robust Angular Rate Sensor Utilizing 2:1 Auto-Parametric Resonance Excitation

This paper presents a single-axis angular rate sensor that is robust to variations in its operating voltage and frequencies. The sensor is developed to overcome the shortcomings of conventional mode-matched Micromachined Vibratory Gyroscopes in open loop operations, namely narrow frequency bandwidths and unstable scale factors. The developed sensor utilizes inherent forcing and inertial nonlinearities from electrostatic forces and fabrication imperfections to auto-parametrically excite the sense mode via 2:1 auto-parametric resonance, which yields a broader bandwidth frequency response for the sensor’s sense mode. The experimental results demonstrated [Formula: see text] frequency bandwidth of [Formula: see text] , a scale factor of [Formula: see text] , and a dynamic range of [Formula: see text].