Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Uwe Betz

Heinz-Werner Morell

Raphael Skorupa

Georg Krettler

The invention relates to an angular rate sensor having a vibration gyroscope, in which circuits are provided for operating the vibration gyroscope and for deriving an angular rate signal. The circuits access modifiable data, whereby this data is stored in a writable non-volatile memory. The data from the non-volatile memory is read after the angular rate sensor is switched on.

Angular rate sensor having a vibration gyroscope

The invention relates to a method for aligning a rotation rate sensor with a vibration gyroscope, the first input and the first output of which is part of a primary control circuit. Said control circuit excites the vibration gyroscope to vibrate at its natural frequency by supplying it with an excitation signal. The second input and the second output of the vibration gyroscope is part of a secondary control circuit. An output signal can be gathered from the second output and said signal is demodulated after amplification and analog to digital conversion to give an in-phase component and a quadrature component. After filtering, these components are modulated and composed to give a driver signal that is supplied to the second input and a rotation rate signal is derived from the in-phase component. The inventive method is characterized in that, when the vibration gyroscope remains motionless, correction values are added to the in-phase components and to the quadrature component which correction values are changed until the in-phase component and the quadrature component reach a minimum each. The correction values are stored in a non-volatile memory and are used when the rotation rate sensor is operated.

Method for aligning a rotation rate sensor

The invention relates to a rotational speed sensor including a vibrating gyroscope which is part of a primary and a secondary control circuit. The control circuit, respectively, amplifies, demodulates, remodulates an output signal of the vibrating control circuit and supplies it again to the vibrating control circuit as an exciter signal and the primary control circuit provides most of the energy required for maintaining the vibration. A frequency synthesiser including mechanism for adjusting the phase length of the carrier is provided in order to produce carriers which are used to demodulate and remodulate. Said carrier forms, a phase control circuit in conjunction with a phase comparison circuit. The amplified output signal in the primary control circuit and a comparison carrier produced by the frequency synthesiser can be guided to the phase comparison circuit. The invention also relates to a method for equalising the inventive rotational speed sensor.

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Burg Gräfenrode, Germany

Uwe Betz