Effect of simultaneous high temperature and vibration on MEMS based vibratory gyroscope

Combined effects of high temperature and vibration can significantly attenuate the life of electronics used in automotive, military and navigation applications. No prior studies exist which examine the simultaneous effects of high temperature plus vibration and analyze failure modes and failure criterion for MEMS based gyros and accelerometers. Accelerometers and gyroscopes make a great complement to one another, as the latter is not affected by gravity. Both are used alongside each other in motion-capture, vehicle navigation, and missile-control and flight guidance applications. In order to have a reliable harsh environmental reliability data set these MEMS devices need to be monitored under conditions mimicking their areas of applications. In this paper a test vehicle with a, MEMS gyroscope, LPY510AL, has been tested under: high temperature exposure at 55°C combined with vibration profile(s) set at 14G. The test boards with gyroscopes were later subjected to rotations between 07s and 1007s. Scale Factor(s) were computed for both the pristine and vibration conditions. This paper also highlights the effect of thermal cycling on zero bias stability of LPY510AL. The test boards were subjected to a standard thermal cycling profile, −40°C to 85°C for 250 loops. Shift in output parameters for the gyro has been examined incrementally until failure. The survivability of LPY510AL has been demonstrated as a function of change in the output parameters.