Gyroscope

(Essay for ET4257)

BY DALI ZHANG

Student Number: 4219058

Contant
Contant .............................................................................................................................. i Abstract............................................................................................................................. ii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 1.2 2. Basic Definition .............................................................................................. 1 Development and History ............................................................................... 2

1.3 Essay Structure ................................................................................................ 3 Types of Gyroscope ................................................................................................... 4 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 General Introduction ....................................................................................... 4 Electro-Mechanical Gyroscopes ..................................................................... 4 Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLG) ....................................................................... 5 Fiber Optic Gyroscopes .................................................................................. 7 MEMS Gyroscopes ......................................................................................... 8

3.

2.6 Summary ......................................................................................................... 9 Silicon Gyroscope ................................................................................................... 10 3.1 3.2 Silicon as a Mechanical Material .................................................................. 10 Working Principles and Structures ................................................................ 10 3.2.1 Inertial Sensors ........................................................................................ 10 3.2.2 MEMS Gyroscopes ..................................................................................11 3.3 Important Characteristics .............................................................................. 12 3.4 3.5 3.6 Fabrication .................................................................................................... 13 Main Drawback ............................................................................................. 15

Simple Analysis............................................................................................. 16 3.6.1 STMicroelectronics L3G4200D .............................................................. 16 3.6.2 InvenSense MPU-3000 ............................................................................ 17 3.6.3 VTI CMR3000 ......................................................................................... 18 3.6.4 Comparison.............................................................................................. 18 3.7 Applications .................................................................................................. 19 3.8 Summary ....................................................................................................... 20 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 21 References ...................................................................................................................... 22

Abstract
Gyroscope is rotation sensitive sensor. Over the long history of its development, many kinds of gyroscopes based on different principles have been invented. In this essay, an overview discussion of gyroscope is presented. History, principle, and application of different kinds of gyroscopes, including electro-mechanical gyroscope, ring laser gyroscope, fiber optic gyroscope, and MEMS gyroscope, are studied. Detailed discussion on material, principle, characteristics, fabrication, shortcomings and applications of silicon MEMS gyroscope are presented. Three widely used on sale MEMS gyroscopes are evaluated. Index term Gyroscope; MEMS; MEMS Gyroscope

ii

1. Introduction
1.1 Basic Definition
For broad definition, a gyroscope is a solid body capable of rotation at high angular velocity about an instantaneous axis which always passes through a fixed point. The fixed point may be the center of gravity of the solid or it may be any other point. [1] As shown in Fig. 1, a typical gyroscope is a mechanical device the essential part of which is a flywheel with a heavy rim. It spins at high speed and its axis of rotation can turn in any direction about a fixed point on that axis. [1] Principle of typical gyroscope is based on the law of conservation of angular momentum. From the law, it is indicated that when no external torque presents, angular momentum of an object will not change. For a gyroscope shown in Fig. 1, the flywheel rotates at a high speed. When the system where the gyroscope is implemented on moves, the rotating flywheel will always remain rotating about the original axis. In other words, axis of the rotating flywheel does not move when the system moves. In this way, by measuring relative angular displacement of the system and the axis of flywheel, orientation of the system is detected. Most of modern electro-mechanical gyroscopes are based on similar principles as discussed above they are accurate and reliable. However, there are also gyroscopes based on other principles, such as such as FOG (fiber optic gyroscope), RLG (ring laser gyroscope), and MEMS gyroscope.

Fig. 1 Typical Gyroscope [1]

1.2

Development and History

History of gyroscope is so long that people could hardly find out when and where the first gyroscope

was invented. However, the real development of gyroscopes started only a few centuries ago. For thousands of years before that, gyroscopes served all around the world only as childrens toys, with no further development. And people did not even know how they work until the 17th century, when principles of angular momentum were found. In the 18th century, real development of gyroscopes started. The first application, after gyroscopes were invented thousands of years ago, was navigational instrument. At that age, increasing demand of maritime trade required advanced navigation tools, and gyroscope turned out to be one of the best choices. The first well known invention applying gyroscope was called whirling speculum. It was invented by an English sea captain named John Serson, and was successfully used to locate horizon in foggy or misty conditions on board.[2] In early 19th century, accurate gyroscope instruments were invented. With a rotating massive sphere or disk, these instruments showed angular momentum principles clearly. Some of them were used as teaching aids. Some of them were used in sailing and navigation. However, gyroscopes in these applications were not reliable, because they could only spin for a short time. Things started to change in the 1860s, when advanced electric motors were introduced to gyroscopes manufacture. In early 20th century, with development of advanced electric motors, people invented gyroscopes that could spin indefinitely. As a result, reliable product of gyrocompasses was implemented, which is now known as one of the indispensable parts of inertia navigation. Their applications on airplanes and ships brought aeronautics and navigation a new page. During World War II, gyroscopes were widely applied to military products. Their applications brought people not only improved performance of traditional weapons, such as aircrafts and submarines, but also the possibility of inventing some completely new weapons, such as the V2 missiles. To some extents, gyroscopes changed the war. During the cold war, due to the ultimate race in new weapons and science, such as guided missiles, man-made satellites, and human spaceflight, gyroscopes were further developed. Traditional mechinal gyroscopes became miniaturized, more accurate, and more reliable. New gyroscopes with further improved performance, like optical gyroscopes, were invented. After the cold war, traditional macro-scale gyroscopes were continuously developed due to the increasing demands from both military and industrial fields. In 1990s, with technical improvements in semiconductor industry, MEMS technology turns out to be a possible approach of manufacturing micro-scale gyroscopes, which initially have several advantages over macro-scale gyroscopes. Recent years, thanks to the development of silicon MEMS technology, gyroscopes have become extremely cheap, comparing with how much they were ten years ago. And with the booming market of consumer electronics, MEMS gyroscopes have become part of peoples life, from high-end applications
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such as microphones and navigators to low-end products like toy helicopters. However, for some initial disadvantages, MEMS gyroscopes cannot replace traditional large-scale gyroscopes. As a result, both large-scale and micro-scale gyroscopes have their positions nowadays.

1.3

Essay Structure
In this essay, history, principles, applications and characteristics of gyroscopes are discussed, with

specific examples and analysis. In Chapter 1, general principles and history of gyroscope are described. In Chapter 2, mechanical gyroscope, ring laser gyroscope, fiber optic gyroscope, and MEMS gyroscope are analyzed. In Chapter 3, MEMS gyroscope is discussed in detail, with specific products as samples. In conclusion part, current development of gyroscopes is summarized, and future trend of gyroscopes is predicted.

2. Types of Gyroscope
2.1 General Introduction
Nowadays, gyroscopes are widely used in industry and peoples everyday life. Generally speaking, modern gyroscopes can be divided into three types, according to the principle they rely on. The first type of gyroscopes is based on the law of conservation of angular momentum. As a result of demand of navigation tools and mechanical industry background, they were the first gyroscopes ever invented and they were mechanical. Such a long history they have, they are still widely used in todays industry, known as electro-mechanical gyroscopes. The second type of gyroscopes uses light, or laser. They are based on Sagnac Effect, known as optical gyroscopes. These gyroscopes have the same functionality as mechanical gyroscopes, but they can work without any moving part, which provides them with high reliability and lifetime. Also the principle of applying light makes them much accurate than other gyroscopes. Two well known applications are ring laser gyroscopes and fiber optic gyroscopes. The third type of gyroscopes is based on principle of inertial sensing. The principle was raised in the 1920s, and it is popular among the public today. Thanks to the development of MEMS technology, inertial gyroscopes turned out to be the first gyroscope that anyone can afford and use well. MEMS gyroscopes are small, light and cheap, with so many advantages over other large-scale gyroscopes in the booming field of consumer electronics. Each of these gyroscopes has its own advantages and disadvantages. With different requirements, for different applications, each of them has its own position. And people will go on researching for better gyroscopes, either based on the old principles or new ones.

2.2

Electro-Mechanical Gyroscopes
Mechanical gyroscopes were the first kind of gyroscopes that people applied as instrumentations. It

was invented to be as an effective navigation tool for ships and airplanes. The simplest mechanical gyroscope configuration is shown in Fig. 1. The spinning wheel is driven by an electric motor, and it is suspended in a pair of precision low-friction bearings, which is call the inner gimbal ring. And the inner gimbal ring pivots on a second set of bearings that attached it to the outer gimbal ring.[3] In this case, there are 3 rings, including the frame with another bearing, so the gyroscope has 3 dimension of freedom. With development of gyroscope and other technology, people have optical gyroscopes that are more accurate than mechanical gyroscopes, and MEMS gyroscopes that are much cheaper than mechanical gyroscopes. However, there still are some applications where optical gyroscopes are too expensive and MEMS gyroscopes do not have enough reliability. As shown in Fig. 2, meters on some airplanes still use
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mechanical gyroscopes.

(a) Attitude Indicator

(b) Heading Indicator

Fig.2 Mechanical Gyroscopes Application [4]

As shown in Fig.2 (a), in an attitude indicator, there is a 2 dimensional mechanical gyroscope. When it is functioning, the rotor will spin in the horizontal plane. When attitude of the plane changes, the rotor will not change, and the angle will be shown on the meter. In Fig.2 (b), the heading indicator performs as a gyrocompass. In a gyrocompass, the rotor spins. According to the law of conservation of angular momentum, it will keep its direction. However, gravity will have an effect on the rotor, in the direction pointing to center of the earth. As a result, when direction of the spin axis changes, torque caused by the gravity changes. With properly designed gear system, the heading direction of the airplane will be shown on the indicator. Problems of mechanical gyroscopes are mostly caused by the way it works. Frictions in the support bearings and air will result in unstable spin rate. Shaking or other incidence happens around may result in system imbalances. And pinning shortens lifetime of the entire system. Furthermore, the principle of mechanical gyroscopes also leads to error. The law of conservation of angular momentum works perfectly when no external force is added to the object. However, when a gyroscope works on earth, the gravity, the Coriolis force will affect the system, and result in error. Discovering all these disadvantages, people in 1960s finally invented a gyroscope without spinning part.

2.3

Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLG)

Optical gyroscopes are gyroscopes that can detect rotation by measuring phase shift of light, without

any spinning part in the system. There are two kinds of optical gyroscopes that are widely used today. They are Ring laser
5

gyroscopes (RLGs) and fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs). The first RLG was invented in 1960s, since then, they have replaced electro-mechanical gyroscopes in many applications.[5] The principle RLG based on is known as Sagnac effect, typical structure of RLG is shown in Fig.3. As shown in Fig.3, a beam of laser is generated, and then split into two light beams. The beams will follow the same path in opposite direction. When they meet at the readout detector, interference will take place. According to Sagnac effect, when the path rotates, phase of each light beam going in opposite direction will change. Phase shift of the beams will be a function of rotating angular velocity . As a result, interference figure at the readout detector will change. By measuring the shift of interference figure, rotating angular velocity of the path will be found. Comparing with mechanical gyroscopes, RLGs are more stable and accurate. However, RLGs have their own problems too. As it is shown in Fig.3, to form the light path, at least two mirrors are needed in a one dimension RLG. It is known that RLGs rely on phase shift of the beams to detect rotation. Reflection at each mirror will introduce extra phase shift to the light beams. As a result, RLGs have a detection limit, under which any rotation will not be measured. Although it is found that RLGs have ideal linear response above the limit, their detection limit is still not good enough for some applications. Another factor that may negative effect on RLGs performance is gas leakage, which shortens lifetime of the device, especially when size of the device becomes smaller. As a result, RLGs cannot be fully miniaturized. Furthermore, RLGs often suffer from drawbacks such as lacking flexibility, high power consumption and high weight. With all these advantages and disadvantages, application of RLGs is limited. Only large systems such as rockets, aircrafts, and ships, can afford them.

Fig.3 Ring Laser Gyroscope [6] 6

2.4

Fiber Optic Gyroscopes

Optical fiber is flexible light transparent glass fiber. It has been widely used in communication

industry for decades. In 1970s, optical fiber was introduced to optical gyroscopes. People find that Sagnac effect based optical gyroscopes can be implemented with fiber and fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs) were invented. With the help of fiber, some disadvantages of RLGs were overcome. Principle of the FOGs are the same as RLGs, and the most significant difference between them is that FOGs employs optical fiber to form the path, while RLGs uses mirrors. Typical structure of FOGs is shown in Fig.4. As shown in Fig.4, in a FOG, light is generated by a light source. Unlike RLGs, light source will not affect FOGs characteristics.[7] As a result, a low cost LDE light source can be applied to FOG, which also leads to lower power consumption. The light is then split into two beams. One of them goes in the fiber coil in clockwise direction and the other goes into the fiber in counterclockwise direction. The fiber coil can be tens to thousands of meters long. And when the light beams come out from the other end of the coil, according to Sagnac effect, there will be a phase shift which is relevant to rotation angular velocity, as shown in equation 2-1. =
2 LD c

2-1 f =
D n

Where = phase shift L = length of fiber coil D = diameter of fiber coil = wavelength of optical energy c = speed of light in a vacuum.

2-2

f = frequency difference between beams D = diameter of fiber coil = freespace wavelength of laser n = refractive index of the fiber.

Fig.4 Fiber Optic Gyroscope [7]

The FOG shown in Fig.4 is an open loop interferometric FOG, it has a limited dynamic range, and unstable scale factor. However, it reduces the manufacture cost significantly. As a result, it is widely used in low cost systems with low accuracy requirement. There are also other kinds of FOGs, they are
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close-loop interferometric FOGs and resonant FOGs. Close-loop FOGs are more stable than open loop FOGs, but with much higher complexity and manufacture cost. In resonant FOGs, perimeter of the fiber coil is matched with an integral number of wavelengths. So resonance happens when the coil is not rotating, and energy intensity of the loop will be the highest in this situation. When the coil rotates, according to Sagnac effect, resonant frequency will shift from frequency of the light source, as shown in equation 2-2. As a result, energy intensity of the loop will decrease. Rotating angular velocity is then measured. One advantage of resonant FOGs is that length of fiber can be reduced by 10 to 100 times comparing with ordinary FOGs, which reduces the size and weight of the system significantly.[8] FOGs are mostly applied in high class applications, such aircrafts, missiles, rockets, etc. Advantages of them are high reliability, high tolerance to shock and vibration, and insensitivity to gravity effects. Furthermore, flexibility of optical fiber gives the possibility of flexible shape. FOGs can be integrated and fit in different systems. On the other hand, their disadvantages are requirement of initialization before using, and limited dynamic range.

2.5

MEMS Gyroscopes
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems or MEMS, is a technique that implements electro-mechanical

systems in micro-scale. In 1950s, with the development of IC fabrication, people realized the probability of implementing micro mechanical systems with silicon. In early 1960s, the first MEMS sensor was invented. After the invention of surface micromachining in 1967, MEMS started its real development. Nowadays, MEMS produces are widely applied all over the world. The most popular MEMS products are inertial sensors, including MEMS accelerometers and MEMS gyroscopes.

Fig.5 MEMS Gyroscopes [9]

As shown in Fig.5, MEMS gyroscopes are gyroscopes manufactured with MEMS technology. With the help of modern IC fabrication technology and MEMS technology itself, complex mechanical systems
8

like three dimensional gyroscopes can be integrated with all supporting electronic circuits into a small chip with low cost. Comparing with all those mechanical-electro gyroscopes and optical gyroscopes, MEMS gyroscopes have their own advantages. The first one is obviously the size, which gives MEMS gyroscopes the possibility of being installed into almost any daily application products, such as cell phones, and laptops. The second advantage is integration. With all mechanical and electronic systems in a chip, no extra connection is needed for MEMS gyroscopes, which keeps the system simple. Last but not least is the price. Since MEMS gyroscopes are actually chips, they can be manufactured in great numbers, which makes it affordable for all kinds of applications. However, comparing with other gyroscopes, MEMS gyroscopes also have their draw backs. They are not accurate enough for many high end applications. They have a, to some extent, uncontrollable and high failure rate comparing with other products. They are not robust. Many environmental issues can affect their performance, such as temperature, gravity, electromagnetic fields, etc. We will discuss about MEMS gyroscopes in detail in Chapter 3.

2.6

Summary
For gyroscopes discussed above, each kind of them has its own superiorities and inferiors, as a result,

they all have their own special field of applications. Taking into account several factors, including accuracy, size and weight, power consumption, reliability, and price, summary of all gyroscopes discussed above is shown in Table 1.

Gyroscopes Electro-Mechanical RLG FOG MEMS

Accuracy Middle High High Low

Size & Weight Middle Large Middle Small

Power Consumption Middle High Middle Low

Reliability Middle High High Low

Price (High Volume) Low High Middle Low

Application Middle Ends High Ends High Ends Middle & Low Ends

Table 1 Summary of Gyroscopes [10]

3. Silicon Gyroscope
3.1 Silicon as a Mechanical Material
In 1970s, MEMS technology was introduced to the industry. Commercial MEMS products like pressure transducers were manufactured and marketed. People started realizing that silicon was not only a nice material for electronics, but also might be a suitable mechanical material. In 1982, the previous researches and applications on applying silicon as mechanical material were summarized. People found that except for the nice mechanical characteristics of silicon itself, there were at least four extra factors that make silicon a proper choice as future mechanical material in the trend of miniaturization. [11] The first factor was that silicon was abundant, inexpensive. And people had already mastered the technique of producing and processing silicon with controllable to unparalleled standards of purity and perfection at that time. In other words, silicon was cheap and easy to produce. The second factor was that silicon processing was based on thin films, which leaded to the possibility of approaching miniaturization. The third factor was that processing techniques for silicon was of high precision and capability for miniaturization. Moreover, cost of the processing techniques was low. The last factor was the batch-fabrication, which would lead to extremely low price for individual product. [11] Development of the last few decades has proved that silicon is a nice mechanical material, especially for MEMS. With the help of modern fabrication processing, the choice of silicon shows a great success. Microsystems based on silicon, such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, chemical sensors, etc. have become indispensible parts of industry and even everyday life of the public.

3.2

Working Principles and Structures

MEMS gyroscopes are kind of inertial navigation sensors, however, they are also based on other

laws and principles.

3.2.1 Inertial Sensors

The basis of inertial sensors is Newtons laws of motion. According to Newtons first law, every object will only change its velocity when acted upon by a force. In other words, objects have the resistance towards any change in its motion. In an inertial sensor, a mass will play the role of the object who is not willing to change its motion. When a velocity of the object changes, Newtons second law indicates that acceleration of the object will be proportional to, and in the same direction as the net force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass. For an inertial sensor, when the sensor s velocity varies, the mass will require a force acted on it so that it can keep moving with the sensor. To add force on an object, a second object has to be introduced, and Newtons third law says that the second body will
10

simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to that of the first body.[12] In an inertial sensor, when the mass requires a force for acceleration, the force should be added by other part of the sensor. By measuring this force, acceleration of the sensor can be calculated with known mass of the mass. Time integration of acceleration yields velocity, and time integration of velocity yields displacement, or position.

3.2.2 MEMS Gyroscopes

For MEMS gyroscopes, generally speaking, they are also based on Newtons laws of motion. However, for rotation measurement, some more special principles should also be employed, such as Coriolis acceleration. Since MEMS gyroscopes should be fabricated with IC fabrication technology, not all structures for inertial gyroscope can be implemented into MEMS gyroscopes. Three commonly used suitable structures are vibrating-wheel gyroscopes, vibrating ring gyroscopes, and tuning fork gyroscopes. [13] Structure of vibrating-wheel gyroscopes is shown in Fig. 6 (a), it is the simplest structure among the three. As it is shown, when the substrate rotates with the sensor, due to effect of inertia, rotation of the rotor will have a delay. As a result, capacitance at both of the detection electrodes will change, differentially. In this way with two to four detection electrodes on one substrate plane, rotation in x and y direction will be measurable.

Fig. 6 Vibrating-Wheel Gyroscope [13]

Functioning modes of vibrating ring gyroscope or resonant gyroscope are shown in Fig.7. To sense rotation, the ring is electrostatically driven into an elliptically shaped vibration mode and the positions of the node lines are capacitively monitored, as shown in Fig.7 a. When the device is rotated about the ring center, Coriolis force will cause the node lines lag, as shown in Fig.7 b. To maintain the node line fixed, an additional force should be added, which requires a corrective voltage proportional to the rotation rate. By measuring the corrective voltage, rotation is measured. Meanwhile, as an inertial sensor, this device has the capability of acceleration measurement as well. [14]

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Fig. 7 Functioning Modes of Vibrating Ring Gyroscope [15]

Similar as vibrating ring gyroscopes, tuning fork gyroscopes also rely on Coriolis force. As shown in Fig.8, the tuning fork is driven into resonant in the input rotation direction by drive capacitors shown in Fig.9. When the device rotates about the axis , Coriols force will have an effect. Under this effect, portion of the energy in the original resonant direction will be transformed in to its perpendicular direction, shown in Fig.8 as Coriolis response. As a result, capacitance between the two parallel plates shown in Fig.9 will change, and an AC output signal will be generated. By measuring this signal, rotation is measured.

Fig. 8 Tuning Fork Gyroscopes Principle [16]

Fig.9 Tuning Fork Gyroscope

[17]

3.3

Important Characteristics
As MEMS products, MEMS gyroscopes are characterized by both mechanical and electronic factors.

Several important parameters are angle random walk, bias drift, scale factor accuracy, full scale range, resolution, max shock, and bandwidth. Angle random walk is one of the most important noise factors for gyroscope. It is random noise caused by thermo-mechanical events at high frequency, with a white noise behavior. Bias and scale factor error are deterministic error sources for MEMS gyroscopes. Bias drift describes behavior of the offset of MEMS gyroscopes. Scale factor determines the sensitivity of MEMS gyroscopes. Take bias drift as an example, bias accuracy determines how gyroscopes behave when no rotation is acted, however even if a gyroscope is accurately biased, offset will occur. As a result, its stability or bias drift becomes more important. It should be as low as possible. Otherwise, offset will become random noise,
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which is not able to be compensated for. For scale factor accuracy, the reason and the request are the same. Full scale range and resolution are parameters that define gyroscopes main performance. Full scale range is the maximum detection range, within which measurement is reliable. Resolution refers to the LSB of MEMS gyroscopes. Max shock describes the maximum angular acceleration the device can survive. Max shock is always much larger than the full scale, it is determined by the mechanical characteristics of the critical point in a MEMS gyroscope. Bandwidth is a parameter that tells the maximum angular velocity signal frequency that the gyroscope can measure, which sets a limit to application. Requirements of some parameters for different grades are shown in Table 2.
Parameter Angle Random Walk, / h Bias Drift, /h Scale Factro Accuracy, % Full Scale Range, / sec Max. Shock in 1 msec, g Bandwidth, Hz Rate Grade >0.5 10-1000 0.1-1 50-1000 10
3

Tactical Grade 0.5-0.05 0.1-10 0.01-0.1 >500 10 -10 -100

3 4

Inertial Grade <0.001 <0.01 <0.001 >400 103 -100

>70

Table 2 Performance Requirements of Different Types of Gyroscopes [13]

3.4

Fabrication
As it is discussed above, MEMS gyroscopes are fabricated with IC fabrication technologies. Typical

IC fabrication technologies widely applied nowadays are surface micromachining and bulk micromachining. Concerning about structure of MEMS gyroscopes, they always have one or more pieces of moving mass with large size, large amount of specially shaped movable beams and springs, and several fixed anchors. As a result, surface micromachining technology, shown in Fig. 6, turns out to be a proper choice. Surface micromachining technology is an additive IC fabrication technique. Layers are added to silicon substrate surface, with further patterning and etching processes, new structure films are added to the silicon substrate surface. As shown in Fig. 6 (a), MEMS gyroscopes can be manufactured with surface micromachining technique in eight major steps, including at least three masks. According to the figure, anchors are manufactured first, by etching. After a few preparation steps, an extra layer is added to the substrate, by shaping this layer, gyroscope structure will be manufactured. This process is actually a combination of bulk and surface micromachining, which is known as one of the most traditional ways of gyroscopes fabrication. However, gyroscopes can also be manufactured with bulk micromachining technique only. As it is shown in Fig. 6 (b), only bulk micromachining technique is used in this process. As a result,
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in this case, an additional glass wafer substrate and a flipping process is needed. Due to the structure of MEMS gyroscopes, fabrication process will become more complex without the participation of surface micromachining process. Some advanced process techniques, such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), reactive ion etching (RIE) or deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and chemical lapping become necessities. [18] With the increasing demand of more advanced gyroscopes, structures of MEMS gyroscopes have become more than complex. Under the drive of these structures, updated manufacture processes come up on stage. Bulk and surface micromachining are still basic steps these processing techniques, but show up together with more combinations and new steps.

(a) Surface Micromachining Process [19]

(b) Bulk Micromachining Process Fig.6 Basic Manufacture Processes

[20]

One improved gyroscope structure is vacuum chamber. As discussed above, a gyroscope has many moving parts, including the mass and large number of micro beams and springs. For these beams and springs, the thin film layer of air between moving and static parts will cause strong damping. This damping will reduce rotation sensitivity of the gyroscope, which is not preferred in most applications. A direct solution to this is problem is to put those moving parts in vacuum ambient. As shown in Fig.7 (a), a vacuum chamber is added on top of moving structures of a gyroscope. The fabrication techniques that are applied are poly-silicon multilayer process, buried oxide, and compensation oxide structures. At the beginning, the first layer of poly-silicon is added as the bases of side walls on the substrate. Then, sacrificial silicon dioxide is added on top of the bases, and etched afterwards. Then the second poly-silicon layer is added and etched. Both anchors and moving structures are fabricated in this step on second poly-silicon layer. Then, another layer of silicon dioxide and structure of vacuum chamber (third poly-silicon layer) is added on top of the second layer. Holes are etched on the third poly-silicon for later HF etching process. HF permeable poly-silicon is then added to cover the holes, and HF is used to etch the sacrificial silicon dioxide layers afterwards. At the end, a layer of silicon nitride is added, enclosing all the holes on top of the chamber. [21]
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Another crucial issue that leads to new fabrication techniques is the manufacture cost. One of the most significant targeted markets of MEMS gyroscope is consumer electronics. These applications has large amount of products, and will be updated in a short time. So they do not require long life time and high reliability as others, lower cost is the main issue. To reduce the cost, two approaches are mostly used. The first is to increase the yield, the second is to reduce the complexity of fabrication. As shown in Fig.7 (b), a low cost MEMS gyroscopes fabrication process requires only three masks. The first mask is for interconnect and pad metallization on the glass substrate; the second mask is for copper sacrificial layer; the third mask is for photoresist layer on top of the copper layer, which is used to shape the final nickel microgyroscope. With reduced number of masks, the fabrication complexity is highly reduced, so does the fabrication cost. Meanwhile, overall performance of the gyroscope satisfies the rate-grade requirements, and could be further improved with packaging at vacuum ambient. [22]

(a) Vacuum Chamber for Gyroscopes [21] Fig.7 Basic Manufacture Processes

(b) Low Cost Process[22]

3.5

Main Drawback
MEMS gyroscope is now known as the one that dominates the market of consumer gyroscope

applications. As discussed above, there are many advantages of MEMS gyroscope that helps it succeed in the market. However, there are also some drawbacks that restricts it, and make it only suitable for consumer applications or rate-grade applications. The main disadvantages of MEMS gyroscope are accuracy and reliability. Accuracy of MEMS gyroscopes is described with two factors, known as angular random walk (ARW) and bias stability. ARW is caused by thermal-mechanical noise, or white noise of gyroscopes. It is defined as a process consists of a series of steps, in which both the direction and size of each step is randomly determined. ARW has a unit of deg/h0.5, the value of ARW is not large, for consumer MEMS gyroscopes at the level of 0.1/ h. However, in detection of angular velocity and rotation angle, with a process of integration, error caused by ARW will be proportional to the square root of time. As a result, MEMS gyroscopes have an increasing error with time of detection and is not suitable to applications with long detection time without further calibration. Bias stability is also known as shot noise of MEMS
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gyroscopes, with the definition of random walk, it can also be regarded as random walk of bias. [23] Also, the nature of MEMS gyroscopes that they detect rotation based on Coriolis Effect also reduces their accuracy and stability. Reliability of MEMS gyroscopes is much worse than other kinds of gyroscopes. The main reason for low reliability is its working principle. In a MEMS gyroscope, moving parts are physically connected with non-moving parts. Their connections are always the weakest point of the whole structure. Failures will happen in two situations, the first one is input shock, the second one is material fatigue. Shock survivability of gyroscope is high, it is hard to break a gyroscope physically with a shock. However, before reaching the highest limit of shock input, the gyroscope will be out of function. Material fatigue is a more important issue. The principle of MEMS gyroscopes make the gyroscope working mechanically all the time since their fabrication, even when they are not functioning. As a result, life time of MEMS gyroscopes should be calculated from the time of fabrication. In other words, life time of the applications will be shortened. And material fatigue can happen anytime.

3.6

Simple Analysis
After decades of research and development, MEMS gyroscope is now in the time of harvest. Except

for ARW, bias stability, and shock survivability mentioned in the previous section, there are also some other important specifications that describe performance of MEMS gyroscopes, such as measurement range, number of sensing axes, nonlinearity, working temperature range, bandwidth, bias, and bias drift. In this section, we are going to analyze some successful MEMS gyroscopes currently in the market, with all these specifications.

3.6.1 STMicroelectronics L3G4200D

L3G4200D is one of the most famous a low-power three-axis MEMS gyroscope product from STMicroelectronics. It was first announced in February 2010. After three years, it has become famous all over the world. Popular applications including Apple's well known products, such as iPhone4, iPhone5, iPod Touch 4, iPod Touch 5, etc. The success of L3G4200D made a great contribution to the introduction of MEMS and MEMS gyroscope to the public. L3G4200D applies tuning fork gyroscope principle. As shown in Fig.8, two drive capacitor plates are placed in right and left side, springs are located in the middle, a vibrating mass is divided into four connected parts, which are set in the between of springs and drive capacitors. When functioning, drive capacitor will produce vibration to two parts of the mass that are connected to the drive capacitors, then the vibration will be transmitted to the other two parts that are connected to the capacitive sense. Four capacitive sensing arrays of detection beams will measure rotation. Important specifications of L3G4200D are shown in Table 3.[24]

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Fig. 8 L3G4200D Die [24[

3.6.2 InvenSense MPU-3000

InvenSense's product MPU-3000 is the first announced motion process unit in the world. It is a combination of a digital motion processor and a low power three-direction MEMS gyroscope, and this combination has become the most outstanding advantage of it. The additional motion processor can acquire rotation data from its own MEMS gyroscope, and acceleration data from a third party accelerometer with I2C digital interface. With further calculation and processes in the processor, MPU-3000 will be able to produce six-axis motion information of the object through an I2C or SPI digital interface, which are suitable and being required by most of current consumer electronic products, like smart phones. In its nature, MPU-3000 is a combination of three tuning fork gyroscope. As shown in Fig.9, three sub-gyroscopes of MPU-3000 are packaged in parallel in its package. Each of them is in charge of rotation detection in one particular axis. When it is functioning, vibrating mass of each sub-gyroscope vibrates in its own direction, rotation is detected utilizing Coriolis effect. Each sub-gyroscope work separately, and data is sampled by the motion processor separately as well. In application with a MEMS accelerometer, the motion processor will also collect data from the accelerometer through an I2C digital interface. Then, the processor will calculate six-axis motion information that indicates the complete movement status of the object under measurement. At the end, data will be transmitted to the higher level part of the detection system through SPI or I2C digital interface. Important specifications of MPU-3000 are shown in Table 3.[25]

Fig. 9 MPU-3000 Die [25] 17

3.6.3 VTI CMR3000

CMR 3000 is a three-dimension MEMS gyroscope produced by Texas Instruments. It was put into the market in 2011, and the most outstanding characteristic of this gyroscope was its size. It was known as the smallest three-dimension MEMS gyroscope that had ever fabricated at that time. Moreover, around 81% of the total area of this gyroscope was sensing area, which means this structure of this gyroscope had the highest area-efficiency. Mechanical part of CMR 3000 is shown in Fig. 10, it utilizes a simple single mass tuning fork gyroscope structure, which is common in modern MEMS gyroscope. However, different from those MEMS gyroscopes discussed above, engineers flip the ASIC chip under the MEMS sensor, which is known as the VTI chip-on-MEMS technology. As a result of this, chip area become smaller or people can implement more accurate and complex mechanical system in the same area.[26] A similar technology is used by STMicroelectronics in the MEMS gyroscope of L3G3250A, which replaced CMR 3000 as the smallest MEMS gyroscope in the world in 2012. Important specifications of MPU-3000 are shown in Table 3.

Fig.10 CMR 3000 Die [26]

3.6.4 Comparison
According to datasheet of each MEMS gyroscope and the analysis above, each one of them has its own advantages. L3G4200D has the best overall performance, for the lowest power consumption result in standby mode, high accuracy, and nice linearity. MPU-3000 has a special motion processer integrated on chip, which provides it with a simple approach of six-axis detection. It also has the best noise density, and nice linearity. CMR3000 has the smallest size, and low power consumption, but its accuracy, noise and linearity performance are the worst among the three. As a result, each of the gyroscopes has its own suitable applications, which has been discussed in previous sections.

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Gyroscope Detection Range dps Sensitivity mdps/digit Zero Rate dps Zero Rate Variation over Temperature dps/c Rate Noise Density dsp/ Hz Temperature Range C Axis Power mw Non-linearity %FS

L3G4200D 250; 500; 2000 8.75; 17.5; 70 10, 15, 75 0.03 to 0.04 0.03(50Hz) -40 to 85 3 3.6 to 18.3 0.2 Table 3 Comparison of Gyroscopes
[27,28,29]

MPU-3000 250; 500; 1000; 2000 16.4; 32.8; 65.5; 131 20 0.03 0.01(10Hz) -40 to 85 3 13 0.2

CMR3000 2000 1.33 200 1 No Info. -40 to 85 3 4.3 to 16.5 2

3.7

Applications
In 1997, Robert Bosch Corporation produced the first MEMS gyroscope became available in the

market. [30] The booming market of MEMS gyroscope started. In 2011, according to Yole D veloppement, world market of high performance MEMS gyroscope has reached $1.29 billion. And with annual increasing rate of 4.3%, it will be $ 1.66 billion in 2017.
[31]

The main applications of MEMS gyroscope

are consumer electronics, automotive applications, industrial & medical applications, and aerospace & defense applications. Consumer electronics currently occupies the largest part of MEMS gyroscope application market, and it is clear that it will take more in the future. With a price of lower than $ 0.5 per device and the success of several famous products, such as iPhone, MEMS gyroscope has become a must-have element for many consumer electronics, like smart phone, GPS navigator, 3D remote control, game consoles, digital cameras, and toys.[32] Application of MEMS gyroscope in consumer electronics can be either simple or complex. For simple applications, such as rotation detection in some toys, a one-axis gyroscope will be enough. However, for complex motion detection or position detection, such as GPS, 3D motion detection, etc. even a three-axis MEMS gyroscope will not be enough. For these complex applications, the principle of inertial navigation system, or more specifically, strapdown inertial navigation system, will be utilized. For motion detection, a three-axis MEMS accelerometer will be in need, and the system will be a six-axis relative motion detection system. Result of relative displacement between each adjacent measurement, which represents the motion of the object under measurement in the time interval, will be calculated. For position and altitude measurement, often used as an assistance to GPS navigation, an additional three-axis MEMS magnetometer will be required. In this case, the system will be a nine-axis motion detection system, which can produce position and velocity information of the object under measurement with gravity as reference. With the booming development of MEMS gyroscope, price of gyroscope will become lower with the same performance in the future. And designers will also find more applications of MEMS gyroscopes. It is clear that in the future, MEMS gyroscope will become an indispensible part of everyday life of everyone.
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Automotive application was the first application of MEMS gyroscope, the first MEMS gyroscope in market mentioned at the beginning of this section was also made for automotive use. Advanced MEMS gyroscopes started its success in automotive in 1990s. The main serve of MEMS gyroscope in automotive are electronic stability program (ESP) and safety system. ESP is designed to help the driver control the vehicle in some critical situation when the vehicle is moving out of the steering direction, in other words, out of control. In a ESP system, MEMS gyroscope is used as a rate sensor. It will detect the angular rate of the vehicle around its vertical axis. And provide ESP with necessary data that will help the vehicle stay on track. With further development of automotive stability, some more advanced systems are introduced, such as Hill Hold Control (HHC), Roll Over Mitigation (ROM), Electronic Active Steering (EAS), Four Wheel Drive (4WD), etc. which all requires data from advanced MEMS gyroscopes. Safety system of a vehicle means the airbag system. Original airbag system requires MEMS accelerometer only. However, for more protection in rollover accidents, bell tensioners, side and head airbags and rollover bars should be triggered by a signal. MEMS gyroscopes here is responsible for this signal. [33] With improvement in performance, MEMS gyroscopes nowadays have found their space in some more advanced fields, such as medical and aerospace. Similar as their serve in consumer electronics, in medical and aerospace field, MEMS gyroscopes also produce motion and position information. For medical applications, MEMS gyroscopes are mainly applied in medical home care. Applications such as human motion analyzer, in door position, and self-balanced wheel chairs are widely in use. For aerospace applications, MEMS is now replacing some traditional gyroscopes in inertial measurement units (IMU). As discussed in previous sections, IMU is a measurement system built up with inertial sensors, such as gyroscopes and accelerometers. With constantly improving performance and the advantages in their nature, including small size, low cost, and low power consumption, MEMS gyroscopes have find their superiorities.

3.8

Summary
At present, silicon gyroscope, or MEMS gyroscope, is popular all over the world, in market, in

research fields, and in life of the public. The IC fabrication processes utilized by silicon gyroscope brings it a lot of advantages in its nature, such as small size, low power consumption, and capability to integration. However, the functional principle of using Coriolis effect brings it some disadvantages in its nature, including accuracy and reliability problems. With more and more applications and advanced performance requirements on MEMS gyroscope, it is clear that the consumer demands of it will keep increasing in the future. And this demand will result in a strong push to the research and development in relevant fields, including material, MEMS fabrication, packaging, and MEMS structure design. In the future, with these improvements, people will be able to make best use of its strong points while avoiding its shortcomings at the same time.

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4. Conclusion
Thousands of years after the first gyroscope was invented, more than two centuries after the first gyroscope based sensor was manufactured, now people can find all kinds of gyroscopes both in market and researches. Gyroscope has become an indispensable part of people's life. Due to different demands from the market, development of gyroscopes has been divided into different directions, aiming to their own targeted applications. Traditional gyroscopes are clumsy compared with silicon gyroscopes, however, their extremely high accuracy, reliability, and robustness win them the place in high-end applications. Traditional gyroscopes will go on dominate in areas like aerospace industry, where new gyroscope cannot be applied due to their working principles. As a result, for these gyroscopes, current research is mainly on improvement of their superiorities. Also, inspired by new gyroscopes, new principles, new materials are being applied to overcome their shortcomings. Silicon gyroscopes are being developed at a high speed, due to the fast expending market. The outstanding advantages of silicon gyroscopes are the small size, low power consumption, and low cost. With a relatively poor performance than advanced traditional gyroscopes, silicon gyroscopes are mainly applied in consumer products. However, with new technology and design, silicon gyroscopes nowadays are also utilized in advanced applications, replacing traditional gyroscopes. It is predicted that silicon gyroscope will be the next generation gyroscope that is going to replace most of other gyroscopes used on the planet. Of course further improvements are still in need.

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