Structural design and analysis of micromachined ring-type vibrating sensor of both yaw rate and linear acceleration

Abstract

This work presents the design and analysis of a micromachined ring-type motion sensor which can sense both the yaw rate and linear acceleration of a device in that it is installed. It integrates the functions of a gyroscope and an accelerometer. The design of the microstructure is based on the structure of a vibrating ring gyroscope. The analysis, considering the symmetry of the structure, implies that the rotational symmetry and mirror symmetry of the microstructure markedly affect the performance of the sensor. The modes of vibration determined using finite element analysis and the theoretical calculation of the resonant frequency of the structure are presented. The sensitivities of the characteristic of the sensor to the design specification, the fabrication errors and the theoretical errors are discussed. The structure is fabricated based on deep silicon etching and wafer bonding techniques. The process is developed for eliminating the aspect ratio dependent effect (ARDE) in dry etching process. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.