Towards a surface and bulk excited SAW gyroscope

Surface acoustic wave gyroscopes are a solution for inertial navigation applications which require operability through high levels of shock and vibration. Integration of multiple axis gyroscopes in a small device are also needed to reduce the size and weight of the sensor system. Here we present a two-axis SAW gyroscope using bulk excited surface wave through the Lithium Niobate wafer. For the bulk excited SAW resonator, we obtained 26.6 dB insertion loss at 199 MHz radial propagating surface displacements of up to 120 pm. These results suggest that a common SAW excitation source from the bulk can be used to detect rotation in two orthogonal axes.