Inertial sensors

High-performance MEMS gyroscope

MEMS gyroscope.
© Fraunhofer ENAS
MEMS gyroscope.

One focus of the Fraunhofer ENAS R&D activities is the development of high-precision inertial sensors. In 2016, an industry project related to MEMS gyroscopes has been finished successfully. A gyroscope is an inertial sensor that measures the angular rate without any external references. The challenges of a system with a micromechanical gyroscope are the high requirements with respect to low noise and rate stability. The system itself consists of the mechanical structure that converts the angular rate into a change in capacitances that can be read out with analog front-end electronics. The digital IC of the system is also integrated in the CLDCC68 package and is responsible for demodulation and signal conditioning as well as for the interface to a higher level system. The measurement range of the angular rate sensor is ± 500 °/s with a resolution of 0.0014 °/s (5 °/h) at a data output rate of 2000 Hz. The gyro-specific values for bias instability and angle random walk are < 5°/h and < 0.1°/√h, respectively.