Compact Quartz MEMS IMU: from Tactical to Navigation Grade

EMCORE has demonstrated high-end tactical grade and navigation grade performance of a compact inertial measurement unit (IMU) based on quartz MEMS inertial sensor technology, originally developed by Systron Donner Inertial. Experimental results for the gyroscope reveal angle random walk lower than 0.001 °/$\surd$hr, and bias instability of 0.005 °/hr; bias over a dynamic temperature environment (−55 °C to +90 °C) is <0.2 °/hr and scale factor error is < 50 ppm. Experimental results for the accelerometer have demonstrated a velocity random walk of 0.3 $\mu$g/$\surd$Hz, with bias instability of $0.1 \mu \mathrm{g}$; accelerometer bias and scale factor drift over a full temperature range (−55 °C to +90 °C) were 20 mg and 25 ppm, respectively. This performance was achieved within the form factor of the SDI500 IMU (19 cubic inches, coffee mug size).