Temperature dependent characteristics of the JPL silicon MEMS gyroscope

Advances in aeronautics and space technology have created a need for miniaturized navigation instruments such as gyroscopes, a need which is currently being addressed by a number of micromachined designs. While micromachined devices have already proven their advantages being light-weight and low-power, the performance limitations of these devices have not been thoroughly investigated. In particular the effects of the temperature environment on the performance is of great interest since they can be a dominant source of error in micromachined devices. We have investigated the temperature-dependent drift and noise characteristics of a packaged silicon MEMS gyroscopes. Packaged devices were subjected to various temperatures environments between -60 and +60/spl deg/C, and their resonant frequencies, signal drifts and quadrature drifts were monitored. The results obtained from these tests point out the mechanisms of temperature-dependent and temperature-independent drift and suggest a scheme for temperature compensation.