Design and analysis of MEMS tuning fork gyroscope with dual mode ordering

Abstract

This paper reports a MEMS tuning fork gyroscope which can effectively reduce the acceleration output in both drive and sense directions. The structure adjusts the order of mechanical vibration modes through the design of internal and external lever coupling mechanism, moves the spurious in‐phase mode frequency above the antiphase operating frequency, and provides a large frequency separation between the two modes. It provides true mechanical rejection of external shocks and accelerations. Two comparative tuning fork gyroscopes (TFG) structures are designed, which have traditional coupling in the drive direction and sense direction respectively. Through modal simulation, the internal lever‐coupling brings the antiphase drive mode before the in‐phase drive mode and the external lever‐coupling brings the antiphase sense mode before the in‐phase sense mode. The harmonic response simulation of three stiffness unbalanced TFGs verifies that the mode ordering of two directions can effectively suppress the acceleration output. The results show that the new TFG structure can suppress the acceleration output by more than 80%, and the finite element simulation results are consistent with the theoretical calculation.