Novel High Frequency, Temperature Stable, Quartz Gyroscopes

An AT-cut quartz plate with lateral tines was proposed as an angular velocity sensor. The plate itself formed the driving component while the lateral tines formed the angular velocity sensors. The angular velocity effect on the plate-gyroscope was demonstrated via its effect on the electric potential at edge electrodes, and on the admittance at driving electrode. The change in electric potential at edge electrodes varied with the magnitude and sign of the angular velocity. An AT-cut plate-gyroscope may offer advantages in terms of (a) frequency stability (b) frequency-temperature stability, and (c) separation of the driving component from the sensing component. The separation of the driving component from the sensing component allowed for a wider variety of tine geometries and modes for detecting angular velocity. Since the Coriolis force was a function of the displacement velocities, the gyroscopic effect therefore a nonlinear problem, albeit weakly nonlinear. Furthermore the frequency responses of change in electric potential at the edge electrode, and change in admittance at the driving electrode were shown to be affected by the nonlinear elastic constants.