Making Precise Resonators for Mesoscale Vibratory Gyroscopes

An alternative approach to the design and fabrication of vibratory gyroscopes is founded on the use of fabrication techniques that yield best results in the mesoscopic size range, which is characterized by overall device dimensions of the order of a centimeter. This approach stands in contradistinction to prior approaches in (1) the macroscopic size range (the size range of conventional design and fabrication, characterized by overall device dimensions of many centimeters) and (2) the microscopic size range [the size range of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), characterized by overall device dimensions of the order of a millimeter or less]. The mesoscale approach offers some of the advantage of the MEMS approach (sizes and power demands smaller than those of the macroscale approach) and some of the advantage of the macroscale approach (the possibility of achieving relative dimensional precision greater than that of the MEMS approach).