A Low Cost Angular Rate Sensor in Si-Surface Micromachining Technology for Automotive Application

This paper reports on a new generation of silicon gyroscopes, which can be used as angular rate sensors for roll-over sensing or navigation control. The sensor is fabricated in standard Si-surface micromachining technology and encapsulated under vacuum conditions using an Si-micromachined cap wafer. The sensor consists of an electrostatically driven oscillating disk, which reacts with a tilt movement when an angular rate is applied due to the conservation law for angular momentums. The tilt movement is then detected capacitively by electrodes on the substrate underneath the oscillating disk. The sensor is packaged in a standard SMD housing (PLCC44).