An intermittent free-vibration MEMS gyroscope enabled by catch-and-release mechanism for low-power and fast-startup applications

This paper presents the first intermittent free-vibration MEMS gyroscope enabled by a “Catch-and-Release (CR)” drive mechanism, which realizes substantial power reduction and fast startup compared to existing stationary gyroscopes. In this architecture, the proof mass is captured at the maximum displacement position (catch-state), and then released to free vibration during which the Coriolis detection is performed (release-state). Thanks to the high quality factor (Q) of 72000, the released mass can be re-captured before attenuation. This CR mechanism enables instant startup and low power. The functionality and sensitivity (21.2 μV/dps) of a prototype CR gyroscope (CR-G) are confirmed by experiments.