Mechanically Amplied 3-DoF Non-Resonant

MEMS gyroscope Fabricated in Low Cost

MetalMUMPs Process
Rana I. Shakoor

Department of Chemical and Materials

Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan
Email: iqtidar@pieas.edu.pk
Shafaat A. Bazaz
Faculty of Computer Sciences and Engineering, GIK Institute of
Engineering Sciences and Technology
Topi, NWFP, Pakistan
Email: bazaz@giki.edu.pk
Mubasher Saleem
Faculty of Electronics Engineering, GIK Institute of
Engineering Sciences and Technology
Topi, NWFP, Pakistan
Email: mubashir132@gmail.com
M. M. Hasan
Department of Chemical and Materials
Engineering, Pakistan Institute of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan
Email: masoodh@pieas.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
This paper introduces the design implementation of 3-DoF MEMS gyroscope concept in contrast to the con-
ventional MEMS gyroscopes having 2-DoF, which allows shaping up the dynamic response as needed with less
compromise in performance. The proposed architecture utilizes the active-passive mass conguration in order to
achieve the dynamic amplication of the oscillation in 2-DoF drive mode. A comprehensive theoretical descrip-
tion, dynamics and mechanical design conguration of the proposed gyroscope prototype are discussed in detail. A
complete test methodology has also been devised for the proposed non-resonant 3-DoF gyroscope. A low cost com-
mercially available MetalMUMPs process of MEMSCAP Inc. is utilized to fabricate a 20m thick nickel based
micromachined vibratory gyroscope with an overall size of 2.2mm 2.6mm. A good agreement is found between
the test results and the simulated results. The wide bandwidth frequency response of the 2-DoF drive mode oscilla-
tor consists of two resonant peaks at 754 Hz and 2.170 kHz with a at region of 1.4 kHz between the peaks dening
the operational frequency region. The sense mode resonant frequency lies within this region at 1.868 kHz allow-
ing the amplitude of the response to be insensitive to structural parameter and damping variations with improved
robustness against such variations. The passive mass achieved a dynamic amplication of 3 times at rst resonant
peak of 754 Hz and 5 times at the second resonant peak of 2.170 kHz in comparison to active mass resulting in
improved sensitivity in response to the induced coriolis torque.

Address all correspondence related to ASME style format and gures to this author.
1 Introduction
Most of the phenomenon are to be measured and subsequently used in timely predictive manner in order to overcome real
time response limitations. The miniaturized systems have better response time,faster analysis and diagnosis, good statistical
results, improved automation possibilities with decreased risk and cost. Therefore considerable amount of research is being
done to develop reduced version of existing systems down to micro and nanometer scale levels. Micromachining can shrink
the sensor size by the orders of magnitude, reduce the fabrication cost signicantly, and allow the electronics to be integrated
on the same silicon chip [1].
During the development of micromachined gyroscopes various actuation mechanisms have been explored to oscillate
the vibrating structure in primary mode. The commonly available microactuators are mechanical actuators, electrostatic
actuators, thermal actuators and magnetic actuators. Each driving principal has advantages and disadvantages with respect to
power requirement, deection range, required force, environmental durability and most importantly response time. Primarily
mechanical driving method is based on the piezoelectric driving principal. The major disadvantage of mechanical actuators
is their high power usage and slow response time. Thermal actuators are activated by Joule heating. However the drawback
associated with thermal actuators are their high power requirement, and high response time. Electromagnetic actuation is
primarily a current controlled process. The magnetic actuators require high currents and correspondingly high power [2].
The tolerance capabilities of the current photolithography processes and microfabrication techniques are great hinder-
ance in the production of high performance inertial sensors. The imperfections in the mechanical structures can limit the
robustness, stability and performance of MEMS gyroscope [12, 13]. Extensive research has focussed on the new dynamical
systems and structural designs for MEMS gyroscope that provide inherent robustness against structural and thermal param-
eter variations by achieving the wide bandwidth frequency response in drive and sense modes [3, 4, 9, 1517]. Most of the
real-world applications, such as automotive, military, and consumer electronics, require robust yet sensitive gyroscopes with
operational frequencies above several kHz in order to suppress the effect of environmental vibrational noise [14]. At the
same time, the desired mechanical bandwidth of the sense-mode is typically above 100 Hz, but not more than 400 Hz [1, 5].
Recently, a newarchitecture was introduced [3], which extends the design space of previously introduced gyroscope with
single degree-of-freedom(DoF) drive-mode and fully coupled 2-DoF sense mode. In this paper we presented a electrostatic
actuation based 3-DoF non-resonant microactuated gyroscope having 2-DoF drive-mode and 1-DoF sense-mode oscillator
with a wider bandwidth. This concept utilizes electrostatic actuation mechanism for driving the vibrating proof mass of the
gyroscope in the primary drive mode. The main reason to use a comb-drive based electrostatic actuator as compared to
other actuators is its low power consumption along with ease of fabrication and integration, good DC response and noise
performance, high sensitivity, low drift and low temperature sensitivity [9].
In this paper, Section 2 describes the background theory of the non-resonant design approach with a 2-DoF drive and
1-DoF sense mode oscillators along with suspension design implementation for the proposed gyroscope. This section further
includes dynamics and lumped model of the proposed design along with its mechanical suspension as well as damping
estimations. Section 3 includes a brief description of the MetalMUMPs process and prototype modeling of the device. Section
4 covers MATLAB based simulation for the dynamic amplication of 2-DoF drive mode oscillator. In the same section, a
FEM based modal analysis is carried out using Intellisuite and in the end a comparison is made between the predicted and
analytical results for the proposed gyroscope design. The proposed design is systematically implemented in the last section
5, along with the experimental characterization of the fabricated prototype. For this purpose, test infrastructure used along
with the testing methodology is also included in this chapter.
2 3-DoF Design Concept
Adynamic systemwith a wide-bandwidth frequency response can be achieved either by increasing the degree of freedom
(DoF) of the drive and sense mode oscillatory system or by utilizing multiple drive-mode oscillators with incrementally
spaced resonant frequencies [7]. 3-DoF design concept utilizes resonance in either drive mode or sense mode, but not in
both, to improve the sensitivity while maintaining the robust operational characteristics. This could be achieved by forming a
structurally decoupled 2-DoF and 1-DoF oscillators. The 2-DoF oscillator has two resonant peaks with a at region between
them. This region denes the operational frequency region of the microgyroscope. The 1-DoF oscillator has one resonant
peak that should be overlapped with the at region of the 2-DoF oscillator. Thus the device is operated at the resonant
frequency of the 1-DoF oscillator for the improved sensitivity, while 2-DoF is inherently constant with the same frequency
band. By utilizing the dynamic amplication in the drive-mode, large oscillation amplitude of the sense element is achieved
with the small actuation amplitudes providing linearity and stability even with the parallel plate actuation.
2.1 3-DoF System with 2-DoF Drive-Mode
This design approach utilizes resonance only in the sense mode to achieve maximum sense mode amplitude to enhance
the device sensitivity while wide bandwidth frequency region between the resonant frequencies peaks is designed in the drive
mode as shown in Fig. 1. The overall 3-DoF micromachined vibratory gyroscope consist of two interconnected proof masses
m
1
and m
2
. Mass m
1
is excited in the drive direction(X-Axis) whereas it is constrained to oscillate in the sense direction. For
Fig. 1: 3-DoF design concept with 2-DoF drive and 1-DoF sense mode oscillators.
the driving purpose of the gyroscope, a very famous comb drive actuation mechanism is being used. This is very well proven
mechanism to obtain large linear displacement. However large drive voltages are required and the resultant force of comb
drive is low [7]. Mass m
2
can oscillate both in the drive as well as in the sense direction(Y-Axis), thus making the gyroscope
dynamical system 2-DoF drive mode oscillator along with 1-DoF sense mode oscillator. Mass m
2
thus forms the passive mass
of the 2-DoF Drive mode oscillator and act as the vibration absorber of the Mass m
1
. The overall micromachined vibratory
gyroscope consisting of two interconnected proof mass m
1
and m
2
is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2: Proposed Gyroscope model with 2-DoF Drive mode and 1-DoF sense mode oscillator.
2.2 Gyroscope Dynamics
3-DoF gyroscope dynamic system is analyzed in the non-inertial frame of reference associated with the gyroscope as
shown in Fig. 3. Each of the interconnected proof masses is assumed to be a rigid body with a position vectorr attached to a
rotating gyroscope reference frame with an angular velocity of

, resulting in an absolute acceleration in the inertial frame:
a
rot
=a
in

r 2

v
rot

r) (1)
The equation of motion of m
1
and m
2
can be expressed in the inertial frame as:
Fig. 3: Representation of position vectors of the proof masses m
1
and m
2
of the gyroscope relative to the rotating gyroscope
frame B .
m
1
a
1
=

F
1
+

F
d
+

F
r
2m
1

v
1
m
1

(r
1
) m
1

r
1
m
2
a
2
=

F
2
+

F
r
2m
2

v
2
m
2

(r
2
) m
2

r
2
_
(2)
where

F
d
is the driving force applied to mass m
1
,

F
1
is the net external force applied to mass m
1
including the elastic and
damping forces from the substrate,

F
2
is the net external force applied to mass m
2
including the damping force from the
substrate and

F
r
is the elastic reaction force between m
1
and m
2
. A few constraints applied on the dynamical system so that
the equation of motion of m
1
and m
2
can be further simplied and decomposed into the drive and sense directions are: a) the
structure is stiff in out of plane direction. b) the position vector of m
1
and the decoupling frame are forced to lie along the
drive direction i.e y
1
(t) = 0. c) the decoupling frame and the sense mass m
2
move together in drive direction. d) m
2
oscillates
purely in the sense direction relative to decoupling frame. Figure 4 shows the lumped model of the proposed gyroscope
design. Thus the equations of motion for active mass (m
1
), passive mass (m
2
+m
f
) and the sensing element (m
2
) when
subjected to angular rate of
z
about the z-Axis become:
m
1
x
1
+c
1x
x
1
+k
1x
= k
2x
(x
2
x
1
) +m
1

2
z
x
1
+F
d
(t)
(m
2
+m
f
) x
2
+c
2x
x
2
+k
2x
(x
2
x
1
) = (m
2
+m
f
)
2
z
x
2
m
2
y
2
+c
2y
y
2
+k
2y
y
2
= m
2

2
z
y
2
2m
2

z
x
2
m
2

z
x
2
_
_
_
(3)
where m
f
is the mass of the decoupling frame, F
d
(t) is the driving electrostatic force applied to the active mass through
the comb-drive mechanism at the driving frequency
d
and
z
is the angular velocity applied to the gyroscope about the
z-Axis. It is assumed that there is no anisoelasticity or anisodamping in the system. The Coriolis force that excites the mass
m
2
in the sense direction is 2m
2

z
x
2
and the Coriolis response of m
2
in the sense direction (y
2
) is detected for the angular
rate measurement.
Fig. 4: Lumped mass-spring model of 3-DoF microgyroscope
2.3 Mechanical Design Implementation
Detection of the rotation induced Coriolis force in the presence of angular rate input is the basic principle on which
almost all the existing micromachined gyroscopes operate. Therefore, the proof mass should be free to oscillate in two
orthogonal directions and constrained in other vibration modes. Thus the suspension system design plays an important and
critical role in achieving these objectives. The complete suspension system of the device is designed such that the rst
mass m
1
with 1-DOF is xed in the sense direction and free to oscillate in the drive direction only. The second mass m
2
has 2-DOF, free to oscillate in both drive and sense direction. Mass m
2
is nested inside a drive mode frame, the sense
direction oscillations of the frame are constrained, whereas the drive direction oscillations are automatically forced to be in
the designed drive direction. Thus the mass m
2
is free to oscillate only in the sense direction with respect to frame, and the
sense mode response will be perfectly orthogonal to the drive direction minimizing the manifestation of anisoelasticities as
a quadrature error. The Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM)pictured suspension system conguration after fabrication is
shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5: SEM image of a fabricated gyroscope showing 2-DoF drive and 1-DoF sense mode oscillator suspension system.
The suspension that connects the mass m
1
with the substrate via anchors is comprised of four double-folded exures where
each beam of length L
1x
in the folded exure can be modeled as a xed-guided beam deforming in the orthogonal direction
to the axis of the beam leading to overall stiffness of [23]:
k
1x
=
4
2
_
1
2
3EI
(
L
1x
2
)
3
_
=
2Etw
3
L
3
1x
(4)
where E is the Youngs Modulus, I =
tw
3
12
is the second moment of inertia of the beam cross section, t is the beam thickness
and w is the beam width. Possible anisoelasticities due to manufacturing aws are suppressed by driving the mass m
1
purely
along the geometrical drive axis by this suspension and constraining m
1
in the sense direction. Decoupling frame having
mass m
f
is connected to m
1
via four double-folded exure with a beam length of L
2x
which can be deformed in the drive
direction resulting in the drive direction stiffness value of [23]
k
2x
=
4
2
_
1
2
3EI
(
L
2x
2
)
3
_
=
2Etw
3
L
3
2x
(5)
The sensing mass m
2
is connected to the decoupling frame with four ve-folded exures, each having beam length of
L
2y
. Since these exures are stiff in the drive direction and deform only in the sense direction, dynamic coupling instability
between the drive and sense modes is greatly reduced and the zero rate drift of the gyroscope is also minimized. The overall
stiffness with a length of L
2y
for each beam is:
k
2y
=
4
5
_
1
2
3EI
(
L
2y
2
)
3
_
=
4Etw
3
5L
3
2y
(6)
2.4 Damping Estimations
Damping is a dominant energy dissipation mechanism in the gyroscope structures which is because of internal friction
of the uid conned between the proof mass surface and the stationary surface. Since the damping of the structure material
is usually low as compared to the viscous damping so it is generally neglected [9]. The c
1x
, c
2x
and c
2y
are the damping
coefcients shown in Fig. 4. These are due to viscous effect of the air between the masses and the substrate and in between
the comb drive and sense capacitor ngers.The damping coefcients are estimated as [11]:
c
1x
=
e
A
1
z
o
+
e
2N
comb
l
comb
t
y
comb
c
2x
=
e
A
f
z
o
c
2y
=
e
A
2
z
o
+
e
7N
cap
l
cap
t
y
cap
_

_
(7)
where A
1
is the area of the active mass, z
o
is the elevation of the proof mass from the substrate, t is the thickness of the
structure, N
comb
is the number of the comb-drive ngers, y
comb
is the distance between the ngers,and l
comb
is the overlapping
length of the ngers, A
f
is the area of the decoupling frame, A
2
is the area of the passive mass, N
cap
is the number of air-gap
capacitors, y
cap
is the distance between the capacitor ngers, and l
cap
is the overlapping length of the nger. The effective
viscosity is
e
=
p
p, where p is the ambient pressure within the cavity of the packaged device, and
p
= 3.710kg/m
2
.s.torr
is the viscosity constant for the air. Since there are no actuation and sensing capacitors attached to the decoupling frame, the
damping coefcient in the drive mode is only due to the Couette ow between the proof mass and the substrate.
Considering the gas rarefaction effects at low pressures and narrow gaps, non-linear effects of squeeze lm damping and
plate motion that propagate into the uid with rapidly diminishing steady state amplitude [20, 24], more accurate damping
can also be generated.
2.5 The Coriolis Response
The design concept suggests that this gyroscope should be operated at the resonance frequency of the 1-DoF sense mode
oscillator so that maximum possible oscillation amplitude may be gained in response to the Coriolis force. The frequency
response of the drive mode oscillator is 2-DoF and has two resonance peaks with a at region between both peaks. When this
drive mode oscillator is excited in the at frequency band, amplitudes of the drive mode oscillations are insensitive to the
parameter variations due to any change in the operation condition of the device. Thus if we want to operate the sense mode
resonator at resonance keeping the operation of drive mode resonator into at region frequency band, this at frequency
region should be overlapped with the sense direction resonance peak. So a at frequency region with wider bandwidth can
be easily overlapped precisely with the resonance peak of the sense mode resonator without feedback control in the presence
of manufacturing aws and variation in operation conditions.
3 Prototype Modeling and Fabrication
3.1 Dynamic Amplication
The proposed 3-DoF microgyroscope is approximated by a lumped mass-spring-damper model shown in Fig. 6(a). The
Fig. 6: (a)Lumped mass-spring-damper model for 2-DoF drive mode oscillator (b)Lumped mass-spring-damper model for
the 1-DoF sense mode oscillator of 3-DoF microgyroscope.
2-DoF drive mode oscillator consists of a drive mass m
1
(active mass). The sinusoidal force is applied to this mass by the
comb-drives. The combination of frame and sense masses (m
f
+m
2
) comprises the vibration absorber (passive mass) of this
2-DoF oscillator. The equation of motion in the drive direction can be expressed as:
m
1
x
1
+c
1x
x
1
+k
1x
x
1
= k
2x
(x
2
x
1
) +F
d
(t)
(m
2
+m
f
) x
2
+c
2x
x
2
+k
2x
(x
2
x
1
) = 0
_
(8)
The equation of motion of the lumped mass-spring-damper model of the 1-DoF sense mode Fig. 6(b) becomes:
m
2
y
2
+c
2y
y
2
+k
2y
y
2
= 2m
2

z
x
2
(9)
When a constant-amplitude sinusoidal force F
d
= F
o
sin(t) is applied on the active mass m
1
, the steady state response of
the 2-DoF system will be [6]:
X
1
=
F
o
k
1x
1
_

2x
_
+j
c
2x
k
2x
_
1+
k
2x
k
1x

_

1x
_
2
+j
c
1x
k
1x
__
1
_

2x
_
2
+j
c
2x
k
2x
_

k
2x
k
1x
X
1
=
F
o
k
1x
1
_
1+
k
2x
k
1x

_

1x
_
2
+j
c
1x
k
1x
__
1
_

2x
_
2
+j
c
2x
k
2x
_

k
2x
k
1x
_

_
(10)
where
1x
=
_
k
1x
m
1
and
2x
=
_
k
2x
(m
f
+m
2
)
are the resonant frequencies of the isolated active and passive mass-spring sys-
tem, respectively. When the driving frequency,
d
=
2x
the passive mass moves to exactly cancel out the applied input
force F
d
on the active mass, and maximum dynamic amplication is achieved.
To achieve maximum possible response of the gyroscope, amplitude of the drive-direction oscillation of the passive
mass should be maximized. The active mass m
1
is electrostatically forced to oscillate in drive direction by comb drive
structure. There is no electrostatic force applied on the passive mass m
2
and the only forces acting on this mass are the elastic
coupling and damping forces in drive direction. In 3-DoF micromachined gyroscope, passive mass m
2
acts as the vibration
absorber of the active mass m
1
. While absorbing the oscillations of the active mass m
2
itself achieves much larger drive mode
amplitude than active mass m
1
and generates larger Coriolis force in response to the rotation. The response of the passive
mass in the sense direction to the rotation induced Coriolis force is monitored by air gap capacitors built around the passive
mass providing angular rate information.
3.2 Prototype Design
A prototype 3-DoF gyroscope is designed for experimental demonstration of the design concept. The proof mass values
are m
1
=3.8610
7
kg, m
2
=1.34610
7
kg and the decoupling frame mass is m
f
=4.810
8
kg. All the basic parameters
calculated analytically and by nite element method (FEM) using Thermoelectromechanical (TEM) Analysis module of
MEMS Design software IntelliSuite are summarized in table. 1, where t = 20 m is the beam thickness, w = 8 m is the
beam width and L
1x
= 410 m is the length of beam whereas Youngs Modulus E = 214GPa was assumed for the Ni, as our
structural layer is of Ni in the process of MetalMUMPs. The analytically calculated values are approximately equal to the
one calculated by IntelliSuite. The location of the two expected resonance peaks in the drive mode frequency response are
Parameters Analytical Results Simulated Results(FEM)
k
1x
=
2Etw
3
L
3
1x
63.59 N/m 65.10 N/m
k
2x
=
2Etw
3
L
3
2x
15.96 N/m 12.32 N/m
k
2y
=
4Etw
3
5L
3
2x
13.86 N/m 14.45 N/m

1x
=
_
k
1x
m
1x
2.043 kHz 2.068 kHz

2x
=
_
k
2x
m
2
+m
f
1.490 kHz 1.308 kHz

x
=

2x
1x
0.7296 0.632

x
=
(m
f
+m
2
)
m
1
0.47 0.47
f
xn
1
1.25 kHz 1.16 kHz
f
xn
2
2.42 kHz 2.34 kHz
Table 1: Comparison of simulated and analytical results for the proposed prototype MEMS gyroscope design.
calculated by using the relation [7]:
f
xn
1
=

1
2
(1+
x
+
1

2
x

_
(1+
x
+
1

2
x
2

2
x
)
2x
f
xn
2
=

1
2
(1+
x
+
1

2
x
+
_
(1+
x
+
1

2
x
2

2
x
)
2x
_

_
(11)
3.3 Prototype Fabrication
Aprototype 3-DoF gyroscope is designed to be fabricated in the Metal-Multi User MEMS Processes (MetalMUMPs) [22]
for prototype verication of the design concept. MEMSPro is used for the designing of mask layouts, design rule checks and
process simulations for MetalMUMPs. MetalMUMPs is a low cost, commercially available, general purpose electroplated
nickel micromachining process for MEMS devices available from MEMSCAP. MetalMUMPs is a popular process for the
fabrication of the poly/nickel powered gripper, the thermal-actuator based bistable micro-relay and MEMS variable capac-
itors. This process consists of a 20m thick electroplated nickel layer used as the primary structural material and electrical
interconnect layer. A doped polysilicon is also available for resistors, additional mechanical structures, and/or cross-over
electrical routing. Two nitride layers (nitride 1 and nitride 2) are used as an electrical isolation layer whereas deposited oxide
(PSG) is used for the sacricial layers. A trench layer in the silicon substrate can also be incorporated for additional thermal
and electrical isolation. The proposed microgyroscope model fabricated through MetalMUMPs after process simulation in
MEMSPro is shown in Fig. 7. A systematic description of all process steps involved in the fabrication of the proposed MVG
using MetalMUMPs is given as [7]. 1) MVG fabrication is started with an N-type 100 silicon wafer with a 2 m thick
silicon dioxide isolation layer. 2) A sacricial Oxide 1 layer is 0.5 m thick PSG used to dene the trench below the moving
parts of the MVG. 3) Two silicon nitride layers of thickness 0.35 m are used for anchoring the xed parts of the MVG to
the substrate. 4) Polysilicon layer (Poly) is used to make cross-over electrical routing for the xed part of the parallel plate
air gap sense capacitor. 5) 1.1 m thick Oxide 2 layer of PSG is used to release the metal (Nickel) structure. 6)Thin layers
of Cr and Pt is deposited at the anchoring locations by lift off technique following the deposition of a 500 nm Cu layer and a
50 nm Ti layer to form the plating base for Ni. 7) Thick photoresist is deposited to form the stencil for the electroplating. A
20 m thick nickel layer is electroplated for the structural layer of the MVG. 8) Hole layer (HoleM) is added over the Metal
to provide shorter release etch path under large metal feature. 9) Final steps are the release and silicon trench etch. The
release is a series of wet chemical etches to rst remove the Plating Base and then the sacricial layers and the Isolation
Fig. 7: Microgyroscope fabricated through MetalMUMPs process using L-Edit of MEMSPro.
oxide layer over the trench areas. Finally, a wet chemical etch of the silicon, using KOH, is used to form a 25 m deep trench
in the silicon substrate.
The overall size of the device is 2.2 mm2.6 mm. The movable parts of the MVG like proof masses and folded ex-
ures are dened using the 20 m thick nickel layer. The anchors and xed parts are formed by the isolation oxide, nitride
layers, anchor metal and nickel layers.
4 Simulation Results
4.1 2-DoF Drive Mode Oscillator Robustness
System having 2-DoF drive mode oscillator takes advantage of nearly constant amplitude between the resonances in
drive mode frequency response. The non-resonant region provides the device with increased robustness and bandwidth at the
cost of reduced gain [24]. Simulation results using MATLAB are used to investigate the response of the 2-DoF drive mode
under varying pressure conditions, as a result damping conditions. By using the state-space representation technique, state
space variable model of the two-mass system is obtained from the Eq. 8. This state variable model is implemented in
MATLAB to obtain the frequency response. In the state space variable model of the system the values of the pressure
are varied, which correspondingly changed the damping parameter as the effective viscosity parameter
e
, in the damping
coefcient calculation (Eq. 7) is directly related to the ambient pressure by
e
=
p
p.
Fig. 8: The drive mode response, showing constant operating region with varying pressure.
The amplitude around the two resonance peaks, 1.25 kHz and 2.42 kHz decreased with increasing pressure but the
change in response amplitude in the at operated region of 1.4 kHz is observed to be insignicant as shown in Fig. 8. At
the lower cutoff-frequency f = f
o
l, the drive mode active and passive mass responses X
1
and X
2
respectively, are in phase
while they are 180
o
out of phase at upper cutoff-frequency f = f
o
h. The phase changes are observed at two resonance peaks
however there is very minor variation in phases, both for the active mass and passive mass, with pressure variation as shown
in Fig. 9. Thus, the amplitude and phase in the at operating region are not affected by pressure or damping variations.
Fig. 9: Phase response of active and passive mass with changing pressure. The phase of active and passive mass remains
constant in at region of 1.4kHz.
4.2 2-DoF Drive Mode Dynamic Amplication
The proposed microgyroscope design consists of a 2-DoF system drive mode oscillator. This sort of oscillator operates
at the same principle as the dynamic vibration absorber. The combination of the masses m
2
and m
f
acting as the vibration
absorber (passive mass) is attached with the mass m
1
by the electrostatic comb drive structures [23], the amplitude of the
passive mass gets amplied mechanically by absorbing the vibration of the active mass m
1
[9]. The sinusoidal drive force is
applied to the rst mass m
1
by the comb drive structures [23]. Equation (8) is used to simulate the frequency response of both
the active and passive mass using the state-space representation technique in MATLAB. A signicant dynamic amplication
of passive mass is observed at the rst and second resonant peak in comparison to active mass as shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10: 3-DoF MEMS gyroscope active and passive mass drive mode response at 60Vdc and 10Vac with a constant pressure
of 4 torr.
4.3 Finite Element Analysis(FEA) Based Simulation Results
In this section, modal analysis of the proposed microgyroscope using Finite Element Analysis(FEA) is carried out to pre-
dict its natural frequencies and their respective mode shape. Thermoelectromechanical (TEM) analysis module of the MEMS
Design software IntelliSuite has been utilized for this purpose. The result of this TEManalysis veried the design concept and
parameters of the proposed model, discussed in design implementation section.Before starting FEA, IntelliSuite 3D Builder
module was used to build and mesh the three-dimensional model of the proposed device. Then this three-dimensional model
is transferred to TEM module and material properties, loads and boundaries are assigned to it. In MetalMUMPs, the struc-
tural layer of electroplated nickel has a residual stress of 100 MPa [8]. Therefore, while calculating natural frequencies
and associated mode shapes of the device, this value of residual stress was used for accurate results. A nonlinear analysis
assumption results in nonlinear stiffness terms of the system which modies the stiffness matrix. This modied stiffness
matrix is used to solve the eigenvalue problem to obtain the natural frequencies [10]. The resulting resonant frequencies
Mode
No
Simulated Resonant Fre-
quency(kHz)
Analytical Resonant Fre-
quency(kHz)
Remarks
1 1.168 1.160 Drive Direction: 1st Mode
3 1.639 1.649 Sense Direction: 1st Mode
5 2.312 2.340 Drive Direction: 2nd Mode
Table 2: Comparison of simulated and analytical results for natural frequencies of drive and sense modes.
from the modal analysis of the device are listed in Table 2 and their associated mode shapes are shown in Fig. 11(a)-(d). Two
resonance frequencies for the 2-DoF drive mode oscillator are observed at 1.168 kHz and 2.312 kHz, which compares well
to the theoretically calculated values of 1.160 kHz and 2.340 kHz. The sense mode frequency of 1.639 kHz is located inside
the drive mode at region as desired, allowing the gyroscope to be operated at resonance in the sense mode and within the
at region in the drive mode.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 11: Simulation results of: (a) Modal analysis results showing resonant frequencies (b) First drive direction mode (c)
Second drive direction mode at 2.312kHz (d) Sense mode at 1.639kHz.
5 Design Implementation and Experimental Characterization
5.1 Design Implementation
A micromachined implementation of the proposed gyroscope using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image
is shown in Fig. 12. The prototype has lateral comb drives with comb ngers gap of 10 m and thickness of 20 m in the
drive direction for the actuation purpose. The motion of the passive mass is detected by using parallel plate capacitor with
capacitor gaps of 10 m. A closer view of the comb drive actuator and xed plate air gap sensor is shown in Fig. 12. The
overall size of the device is 2.2mm 2.6mm.
Driving comb
Sensing parallel plates
Fig. 12: SEM image of a fabricated 3-DoF MEMS gyroscope with 2-DoF Drive and 1-DoF Sense mode.
5.2 Experimental Setup
The frequency response of 2-DoF drive mode oscillator and 1-DoF sense mode oscillator of the prototype 3-DoF mi-
cromachined vibratory gyroscope are characterized using Polytec Microsystem analyzer, MSA-400. A brief ow diagram
of MSA-400s working is shown in Fig. 13. All measurements are taken in atmospheric pressure. Since accurate charac-
terization of drive and sense mode frequency response is very vital to ensure the design quality, a Polytec Microsystem
Analyzer, MSA-400 is used. MSA-400 can dynamically characterize the in-plane as well as out-of-plane vibrations
using Planar Motion Analyzer, PMA-400 and Microscope Scanning Vibrometer, MSV-400. PMA-400 measures vibrations
utilizing stroboscopic video microscopy whereas MSV-400 uses laser-Doppler vibrometry with nanometer and micrometer
displacement range respectively [21]. The stroboscopic Video Microscopy, PMA-400 for in-plane motion detection is a spe-
Polytec Microsystem Analyzer
MSA-400
MSV-400 PMA-400
Laser Doppler
Vibrometry
Stroboscobic Video
Microscopy
Out-Of-Plane Vibration
Analysis
In-Plane Vibration
Analysis
Fig. 13: MSA-400:capable of analyzing in-plane as well as out-of-plane vibrations.
cial kind of image processing in which short light pulses synchronized with the objects motion capture the position at precise
phase angles. Motion is kept frozen during the illumination time. By shifting the timing of these pulses by phase angle incre-
ments, the motion of a moving object can be sampled and reconstructed. The internal signal generator periodically excites
the component with a sine or a pulse signal. A pattern generator uses a green LED to generate ultra-short ashes of light
(>80 ns) synchronously with the phase position of the excitation signal. This means that a high degree of phase accuracy is
attained, even with high frequency excitation. The electronic camera shutter in turn is synchronized with the excitation. It
remains open until enough light at the same phase of the periodic motion has been collected. This procedure is repeated to
extract the amplitude and phase data of the vibrating object [21].
The frequency response of 2-DoF drive mode oscillator and 1-DoF sense mode oscillator of the prototype 3-DoF micro-
machined vibratory gyroscope is characterized at Nanoscale System Integration Group at Southampton University UK, using
Polytec Microsystem analyzer, MSA-400. All measurements are taken in atmospheric pressure. Fig. 14 shows the experi-
mental setup.
Fig. 14: Microsystem Analyzer MSA-400, used to characterize the Microgyroscope.
5.3 Experimental Results
5.3.1 Drive mode characterization
Using Polytec MSA-400, the frequency response of the 2-DoF drive mode oscillator is characterized in atmospheric
pressure. Figure 15 demonstrates the experimental setup used for the drive mode characterization. A peak-to-peak voltage
signal is generated by an onboard signal generator from the MSA-400, which is then fed to the AC power amplier for signal
amplication. This amplied signal is applied to the electrostatic actuator. Finally, using the PMA-400 in-plane frequency
response is extracted. For drive-mode characterization, two probes are used to apply +/- DC bias voltage on the xed comb
Fig. 15: Schematic of the experimental setup used for the drive mode characterization.
drives on either sides of the microgyroscope whereas one probe is used to apply AC signal to the proof mass through the
anchor. Fig. 16(a) and Fig. 16(b) present the frequency responses of the active mass m
1
and passive mass m
2
+m
f
. The rst
resonant frequency is observed at 754 Hz where the passive mass is observed to reach a displacement of 658 nm at 100 Vdc
and 60 Vac achieving a 3 times dynamic amplication of the active mass.
In drive mode frequency response, a at region of 1.4 kHz is experimentally demonstrated. The two resonance peaks in
the drive mode frequency response are observed as f
(xn
1
)
= 754 Hz and f
(xn
2
)
= 2.170kHz instead of f
(xn
1
)
= 1.160 kHz
and f
(xn
2
)
=2.340 kHz. At the second resonant frequency of 2.170 kHz, the passive mass is observed to reach a displacement
of 460 nm at 100 Vdc and 60 Vac achieving a 9 times dynamic amplication of the active mass having a displacement of
55nm.
Fig. 16(c) shows the frequency response of the isolated passive mass in drive-mode. The resonant frequency is observed
to be located at 1508 Hz instead of analytically calculated 1308 Hz.

700 725 750 775 800 825 850
0.0
2.0x10
-7
4.0x10
-7
6.0x10
-7
8.0x10
-7
1.0x10
-6
(B) m
2
+m
f
Passive Mass
(E) m
1
Active Mass
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
(
m
)

Frequency (Hz)
Equation y=y0 + (A/(w*sqrt(PI/2)))*exp(-2*((x-xc)/w)^
2)
Adj. R-Squar 0.76249 0.95767
Value Standard Erro
B y0 7.58341E- 7.07771E-9
B xc 754.52402 0.27006
B w 8.85538 0.55663
B A 7.31107E- 4.20606E-7
B sigma 4.42769
B FWHM 10.42642
B Height 6.5874E-7
E y0 1.02737E- 7.94588E-10
E xc 754.83675 0.07316
E w 6.245 0.14933
E A 1.8429E-6 3.9654E-8
E sigma 3.1225
E FWHM 7.35292
E Height 2.35456E-
3-DoF Microgyrscope Drive-Mode Response
(a)

2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500
0.0
1.0x10
-7
2.0x10
-7
3.0x10
-7
4.0x10
-7
5.0x10
-7
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
m
)

Frequency (Hz)
(B) m
2
+m
f
Passive Mass Respose
( E ) m
1
Active Mass Response
Equation y=y0+A*exp(-0.5
*((x-xc)/w)^2)
Adj. R-Square 0.97271 0.20464
Value Standard Error
B y0 7.72023E-9 4.58559E-10
B xc 2170.6578 0.04815
B w 3.55875 0.04841
B A 4.6085E-7 5.4094E-9
E y0 2.51673E-8 8.3691E-10
E xc 2173.60574 0.72026
E w 4.24297 0.72589
E A 5.56693E-8 8.20542E-9
3-DoF Microgyroscope Drive-Mode Reponse
(b)

1300 1350 1400 1450 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700
0.0
1.0x10
-6
2.0x10
-6
3.0x10
-6
4.0x10
-6
5.0x10
-6

A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
m
)

Frequency (Hz)
Equation y = y0 + A * ( mu * (2/PI) * (wL / (4*(x-xc)^2 +
wL^2)) + (1 - mu) * (sqrt(4*ln(2)) / (sqrt(PI) * w
G)) * exp(-(4*ln(2)/wG^2)*(x-xc)^2) )
Adj. R-Square 0.98139
Value Standard Error
y0 8.61125E-8 6.25985E-9
xc 1506.86421 0.13227
A 7.82051E-5 1.59571E-6
wG 15.9367 0.67025
wL 12.26854 0.33126
mu 1.49811 0.03914
Psd Voigt Fit
3-DoF Microgyroscope Isolated Passive Mass
Drive-Mode Response
(c)
Fig. 16: (a) 3-DoF Microgyroscope Drive-Mode Response (rst resonant frequency) (b) 3-DoF Microgyroscope Drive-Mode
Response ((second resonant frequency) (c) 3-DoF Microgyroscope Isolated Passive Mass Drive-Mode Response
5.3.2 Sense Mode Characterization
Similar voltage applying methodology is adopted to characterize sense-mode as is adopted for the drive-mode charac-
terization. Two probes are used to apply +/- 60 VDC bias voltage on the xed sides of the sensing parallel plate electrodes,
whereas one probe is used to apply sinusoidal 45 VAC on the proof mass through the anchor. Fig. 17 shows the frequency
response of the 1-DoF sense mode oscillators. The location of the peak is observed at 1.868 kHz instead of 1.639 kHz, which
is calculated using FEA based Modal analysis.

1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
0.0
2.0x10
-6
4.0x10
-6
6.0x10
-6
3-DoF Microgyroscope Sense-Mode Response
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
m
)

Frequency (Hz)
Equation y = y0 + A * ( mu * (2/PI) * (wL / (4*(x-xc)^2 + wL
^2)) + (1 - mu) * (sqrt(4*ln(2)) / (sqrt(PI) * wG)) *
exp(-(4*ln(2)/wG^2)*(x-xc)^2) )
Adj. R-Square 0.97814
Value Standard Error
y0 1.02154E-7 1.61548E-8
xc 1868.77173 0.19382
A 2.03767E-4 6.75394E-6
wG 13.04961 0.53942
wL 56.50903 4.62198
mu 0.76672 0.01386
PsdVoigt Fit
Fig. 17: 3-DoF Microgyroscope Sense-Mode Response
6 Results and Discussion
The experimental verication of drive as well sense-mode frequency responses demonstrated a difference, although not
very large, between the predicted and tested resonant frequencies. The possible causes for these variations among the tested
and predicted results could be the simulation issues as well as the fabrication challenges.
While simulating the device, the predicted results primarily depend upon the physical properties of the material used as
the structural layer to fabricate the MEMS device. Generally, the thin lm properties of the material are required when micro
devices are simulated for their FEA based electromechanical analysis. Polysilicon has been widely used for the fabrication
of the MEMS devices for decades. Therefore, an extensive research has already been carried out to measure its physical
properties in thin lm form and is easily available in the literature. But the proposed device in this chapter was fabricated
through MetalMUMPs using structural layer of electroplated Nickel. The thin lm properties of the electroplated Nickel used
in MetalMUMPs process are not readily available in the literature. Therefore, bulk properties of the electroplated Nickel were
used for FEA based analysis to predict its resonant frequencies. This may be one of the reasons for the difference between
the predicted and tested resonant frequencies as the bulk properties remain no longer applicable and get change drastically
for the micro as well as for the nano regimes.
Fabrication imperfections are also unavoidable. These imperfections affect material properties as well as the geometry of
MEMS devices. In surface micromachined gyroscopes, thin lmdeposition process determines the thickness of the structural
layer including its microsuspension elements, whereas etching process affects its width. In addition to this, deposition
conditions affect the Youngs Modulus of the deposited structural layer. Lateral over-etching often causes variation in the
width and cross-section of the suspension beams in bulk-micromachined devices. These parametric variations affect the
dynamic response of micromachined gyroscopes causing the error in predicted and tested results.
When the drive and sense-mode frequency responses of the 3-DoF microgyroscope prototype are investigated together, a
at region of 1.4 kHz is overlapped by the sense-mode resonant frequency, dening the operation frequency region of the
proposed device. These results experimentally demonstrate and verify the feasibility of the design concept.
7 Conclusion
We presented a new microgyroscope design with a 2-DoF drive mode and structurally decoupled 1-DoF sense mode, us-
ing a low cost commercially available fabrication process MetalMUMPS. Using MSA-400 the fabricated prototype is suc-
cessfully tested. The demonstrated difference between the experimental and predicted resonance frequencies was although
not very large, but the simulation issues as well as the fabrication challenges were among the plausible causes for these
variations. Due to symmetry of structure, the 1-DoF oscillator is experimentally observed to overlap the at region of 2-DoF
oscillator without using any feedback control allowing the robust operational as well as wider bandwidth of the device. The
concept of dynamic amplication in the drive mode is experimentally veried to achieve large oscillation amplitudes. A at
region of 1.4 kHz is demonstrated dening the operational frequency region. Using a drive signal of 100 V DC bias and
60 V AC, the passive mass achieved a dynamic amplication of 3 times at rst resonant frequency and 5 times at the second
resonant frequency. The passive mass phase is also observed to stay constant in the at operating region.
Achnowledgements
This research work was supported by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan funded through Indigenous
5000 PhD Fellowship program and National ICT Research and Develpoment Fund, Ministry of Information Technology
of Pakistan through grant No. ICTRDF/TRED/2008/02. The authors thank to Dr. F. Ahmed Khalid and Dr. Abbas Saeed
Hakeem in Faculty of Material Science and Engineering at GIK Institute, for giving access to SEM lab and providing
excellent suggestions and comments on the analysis of SEM pictures of the fabricated gyroscope.
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