A MEMS rate integrating gyroscope based on catch-and-release mechanism for low-noise continuous angle measurement

We present two new techniques effective in realizing high precision MEMS Rate Integrating Gyroscope (RIG). First one is the application of the Catch-and-Release (CR) scheme, reported previously, to the RIG. We show that continuous angle measurement can be attained by catching and releasing a pair of CR-RIGs in a complementary manner. Direct angle measurement is also demonstrated by adopting a doughnut-shaped CR-RIG. Second one is a resistive tunable damper that can compensate the damping asymmetry, a major cause of the angle drift. In this tunable damper, the mechanical damping factor can be tuned by resistance and voltage. We show that the theoretical model fits well with the experimental results.