A piezoelectric-plate microgyroscope

This paper proposes a novel micro vibrating gyroscope. It is based on the thickness extension vibration mode of a piezoelectric plate. Unlike many piezoelectric gyroscopes, it does not use any elastic element. Its principle is given and the theory is confirmed by an experiment using the macro gyro. The proposed gyroscope is suitable for scaling down and can be integrated with existing IC technology. According to the theoretical calculation, this kind of gyroscope with a 1 mm/spl times/1 mm/spl times/2 /spl mu/m piezoelectric plate and an on-chip integrated circuit will have sensitivity of 38.7 mV/V/(/spl deg//sec), resolution of 2.58 /spl times/10/sup -2/ (/spl deg//sec) and measurement range of 129/spl deg//sec.