California Institute of Technology

Robert John Calvet

Roman Gutierrez

William J Kaiser

Tony Kai Tang

Jaroslava Z Wilcox

Randall K Bartman

A rotary flexure is designed to exhibit very high radial and axial stiffness and to exhibit virtually no movement in its center of rotation. The flexure, which is formed from a single billet of material, includes an outer ring from which three thin flexure blades extend. The flexure blades extend toward the centerpoint of the rotary flexure, where they join to form a centerpiece. Three lobes also join at the centerpiece, one between each pair of flexure blades. The lobes extend toward the outer ring, and are free to rotate about the pivot axis with respect to the outer ring and the flexure blades. During rotation, the pivot axis exhibits virtually no movement.

Rotary flexure

When embodied in a microgyroscope, the invention is comprised of a silicon, four-leaf clover structure with a post attached to the center. The whole structure is suspended by four silicon cantilevers or springs. The device is electrostatically actuated and capacitively detects Coriolis induced motions of the leaves of the leaf clover structure. In the case where the post is not symmetric with the plane of the clover leaves, the device can is usable as an accelerometer. If the post is provided in the shape of a dumb bell or an asymmetric post, the center of gravity is moved out of the plane of clover leaf structure and a hybrid device is provided. When the clover leaf structure is used without a center mass, it performs as a high Q resonator usable as a sensor of any physical phenomena which can be coupled to the resonant performance.

Growing community of inventors

Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Robert John Calvet