Thin film micromechanical resonator gyro

Abstract

A method to fabricate a tuning fork resonator gyro which uses non-piezoelectric substrate structure is proposed. The tuning fork structure can be effectively rendered piezoelectric for activation and sensing by thin film deposition of a piezoelectric material. Electrical excitation of the piezo film excites vibrations in the structure of the drive tuning fork, and the gyro signal generated due to rotation can be picked up from the piezo film on the signal tuning fork. Most piezoelectric films have a much higher piezoelectric coupling than crystalline quartz, the material used in the prior art. The piezoelectric films on mechanically hard non-piezoelectric substrates are simpler for fabrication, electroding, and have a number of other advantages over the prior art. Fabrication of the tuning fork structures can be done more simply than the prior art, and deposition of the piezo films can be accomplished by sol-gel, or other thin film techniques. The proposed methods thus provide considerable flexibility to separately optimize the resonator structure in terms of the physical and mechanical properties of the structure, the required piezoelectric properties, and methods for fabrication, processing and low cost manufacturing of resonator gyros.