Characterization of a novel micromachined gyroscope under varying ambient pressure conditions

This paper reports on a novel micromachined angular rate sensor with optimized mechanical suspension, targeted for automotive applications. The eigenfrequencies and the mode shapes of the sensor element were calculated both analytically and by using finite element method simulations. Furthermore, the Q-factors of the drive and sense frequencies were determined experimentally as a function of ambient pressure levels in a custom-built setup. The sensitivity of the sensor element was measured in the range of up to 1000°/s applying different excitation voltages (and) for different ambient pressure levels. The main issue of this work is to characterize the device below excitation voltages of 10 V2 in an ambient pressure regime between 100 and 1000 Pa which represents boundary conditions typically applied to micromachined gyroscopes for automotive applications. From these measurements, the corresponding quadrature errors were determined varying both parameters systematically.