A Parametrically Amplified MEMS Gyroscope

Abstract

The applicability of parametric amplification of either the primary and secondary vibration modes of a MEMS gyroscope, shown in Fig.1 is investigated experimentally in this paper. All control schemes have been implemented digitally onto a SHARC DSP development board. Parametric gains in excess of 80, which correspond to multiplication of the Q-factor by a factor of 80, are demonstrated experimentally for open-loop operation of the primary mode and are shown in Fig. 2. For open-loop operation it is shown that amplitude limiting nonlinearities become important as the vibration amplitude increases (see Figs.3) and that parametric amplification in excess of 80 can be only be achieved by further reducing the harmonic forcing amplitude. In many applications it is desirable to have as high a Q-factor as possible. The rate gyroscope is one application were active control of the Q-factor is extremely pertinent. If applied to the primary mode then it permits reduced forcing levels and hence contamination from “feedthrough”. If applied to the sense mode then the Coriolis force is effectively amplified. Parametric amplification of the secondary mode of the gyroscope is a challenging problem but it has the potential to improve the performance of MEMS rate gyroscope but an order of magnitude. In operation as a rate gyroscope it is important to maintain the amplitude of the primary mode of vibration at a constant level. For the case of a parametrically amplified primary mode the amplitude control circuit automatically adjusts the parametric excitation parameters to ensure the required parametric gain is achieved whilst at the same time reducing the amplitude of the harmonic forcing. In closed loop parametric amplification of the primary mode by a factor 20 have been demonstrated. Experimental results obtained from the amplified primary mode are shown in Fig.4.