No abstract

We have fabricated polycrystalline diamond hemispheres by hot-filament CVD (HFCVD) in spherical cavities wet-etched into a high temperature glass substrate CTE matched to silicon. Hemispherical resonators 1.4 mm in diameter have a Q of up to 143 000 in the fundamental wineglass mode, for a ringdown time of 2.4 s. Without trimming, resonators have the two degenerate wineglass modes frequency matched as close as 2 Hz, or 0.013% of the resonant frequency (~16 kHz). Laser trimming was used to match resonant modes on hemispheres to 0.3 Hz. Experimental and FEA energy loss studies on cantilevers and hemispheres examine various energy loss mechanisms, showing that surface related losses are dominant. Diamond cantilevers with a Q of 400 000 and a ringdown time of 15.4 s were measured, showing the potential of polycrystalline diamond films for high Q resonators. These resonators show great promise for use as hemispherical resonant gyroscopes (HRGs) on a chip.

In this paper we report the fabrication of hemispherical polycrystalline diamond resonators fabricated on a novel high-temperature glass substrate. The hemispherical resonator gyroscope is one of the most accurate and rugged of the mechanical gyroscopes, and can be operated in either rate or whole-angle mode due to its high degree of symmetry. A fabrication sequence for creating extremely symmetric 3D MEMS hemispheres is presented. Mode shapes and frequencies obtained with a laser vibrometer are shown, as well as curves of Q versus pressure, and the dependence of frequency on anchor size. Fundamental mode frequency matching to <0.1% in as-fabricated devices has been achieved, which is essential to gyroscope operation in whole-angle mode.

No abstract

No abstract