Design and fabrication of a micromachined resonant gyroscope

The micromachined gyroscope is rapidly gaining popularity as a rate sensor for application in areas such as automotive and aerospace systems, where lo w power consumption, high sensitivity, low temperature drift and good stabi lity are prerequisites. In this paper, the overall design and fabrication p rocess of a reactive ion-etched inertial resonant gyroscope based on the ca pacitive sensing principle is reported. The experimental results are also d iscussed.