Z-Axis Micromachined Tuning Fork Gyroscope with Low Air Damping

This paper reports on the design and fabrication of a z-axis tuning fork gyroscope which has a freestanding architecture. In order to improve the performance of the tuning fork gyroscope by eliminating the influence of the squeeze-film air damping, the driving and sensing parts of the gyroscope were designed to oscillate in-plane. Furthermore, by removing the substrate underneath the device, the slide-film air damping in the gap between the proof masses and the substrate was eliminated. The proposed architecture was analyzed by the finite element method using ANSYS software. The simulated frequencies of the driving and sensing modes were 9.788 and 9.761 kHz, respectively. The gyroscope was fabricated using bulk micromachining technology. The quality factor and sensitivity of the gyroscope operating in atmospheric conditions were measured to be 111.2 and 11.56 mV/°/s, respectively.