A study of angular rate sensing by corona discharge ion wind

We report an application of ion wind in angular rate sensing. A new design of a jet flow gyroscope using ion wind corona discharge is developed by conducting a numerical simulation and then an experimental analysis with regard to the advantages of a corona-discharge-based jet flow. Ion wind is generated by applying a high-voltage between a pin, as the discharge electrode, and a ring, as the reference electrode. The current-voltage characteristics of the discharge process by experimental works is set up as the boundary condition to describe the ion wind flow in the numerical simulation. A jet flow of ion wind is observed through an experiment and a simulation. When the gyroscope is subjected to an angular rate, the induced Coriolis force deflects the ion wind. This deflection is detected using four hotwires installed downstream of the working chamber behind the reference electrode. The experimental result show that the angular rate can be detected with a sensitivity of 4.7 μV/o/s. Because ion wind can be generated with minimum power and does not require any vibrating components, the device is robust, consumes low power, and is cost-effective.