A phase-based amplitude regulation for gyroscope drive loops

This paper presents a new amplitude regulation for gyroscopes based on phase-shifting. Instead of regulating the AC or DC value of the driving stage in order to maintain a constant primary oscillation, this concept introduces a tunable phase delay into the selfoscillation driving loop. This tunable phase delay is achieved using a Schmitt-Trigger (ST). Compared to conventional amplitude regulation this concept is beneficial, since the high voltages of the driving stage can be set to a constant value and do not have to be adjusted. This reduces the complexity of the analog circuitry enormously and encourages the use of higher driving voltages.