A Catch-and-Release drive MEMS gyroscope with enhanced sensitivity by mode-matching

This paper presents a novel MEMS gyroscope that employs intermittent free vibration and mode matching. An intermittent operation is realized by a “Catch-and-Release (CR)” technique, which enables significant reduction of the drive power. Sensitivities of the mode-matching and mode-split conditions are investigated by electrostatically tuning the sense-mode frequency. A sensitivity as high as 2.14 mV/dps, 52 times higher than the mode-split case, is obtained when the drive and sense frequency difference Δf is reduced to 50 Hz. Optimization for mode matching and quadrature nulling is also demonstrated.