An improved interface and noise analysis of a turning fork microgyroscope structure

• The gyroscope structure electronic model and the noise components are analyzed.
• A interface is proposed based on weak signal differential detection technology.
• A quadrature error compensation system is used to observe Coriolis signal noise.
• Flicker noise is the dominate one in structure and is suppressed by the interface.

This paper analyzes different noise components in MEMS gyroscope silicon structure, including mechanical–thermal noise (MTN), electronic-thermal noise (ETN), flicker noise (FN) and Coriolis signal in-phase noise (IPN). The structure equivalent electronic model is established, and the improved differential interface is proposed based on weak signal detection technology, after that, the noise components in silicon structure are introduced and analyzed in sense open loop. The quadrature error (QE) signal automatically cancellation loop is proposed, and the results of the experiment indicate that the equivalent angular rates of QE and IPN are 46°/s and 4.55°/s respectively. The interfaces contrast experiments show that the DC noise and the useful signal amplitudes of differential and single-side detection interfaces are −49.8 dBmV, −16.8 dBmV and −39.8 dBmV (−42.1 dBmV), −22.1 dBmV (−22.2 dBmV), which confirms the differential interface has better SNR. The carrier experiments also illustrate that higher carrier frequency (from 500 kHz to 10 MHz) can restrain DC noise (from −19.8 dBmV to −54.2 dBmV) better, which demonstrate the FN is the dominant noise component of the silicon structure under normal temperature. The temperature experiments show the DC noise enhances from −48.5 dBmV to −14.6 dBmV over the range 20 °C to 60°C while the useful signal amplitude remains around -16.6dBmV, and this phenomenon indicates the MTN and ETN become the dominant structure noise components gradually with temperature rising.