Tuning fork gyroscope

• US 6,520,015 B1
• Filed: 05/24/2001
• Issued: 02/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thales Avionics SA (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Thales Avionics SA (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Formosa, Fabien, Alause, Hélène Wehbe
• Primary Examiner(s): MOLLER, RICHARD ALAN
• Application Number:
  US09/831,897
• Time in Patent Office: 635 Days
• Field of Search: 73/501.6, 735/09, 734/97, 735/040.2
• US Class Current: 73/497
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 19/574 the devices having two sensing masses in anti-phase motion

Abstract

Diapason type gyrometers using a micro-mechanical structure of vibrating beams. The gyrometer includes a micro-machined sensitive element with at least two symmetrically positioned excitation beams on each side of and parallel to a sensitive Oy axis of the gyrometer. The two beams are connected at their ends through at least one transverse element fixed in its central part to the sensitive Oy axis, to a frame through an elastic torsion return element acting in opposition to the rotation of the transverse element about the Oy axis. The elastic return elements are sized such that the variation of their resonant natural frequency in torsion with temperature is similar to the variation of the resonant natural frequency in bending of the beams with temperature. Such a device may find particular application in the measurement of the angular velocity of a mobile.

Claims

1. A gyrometer, comprising:

a micro-machined sensitive element with at least two symmetrically positioned excitation beams on each side of and parallel to a sensitive Oy axis of the gyrometer, excited in bending about an Ox axis perpendicular to the sensitive Oy axis, and connected at their ends through at least one transverse element fixed in its central part to the sensitive Oy axis, to a frame through an elastic torsion return element acting in opposition to rotation of the transverse element about the Oy axis,

wherein the elastic return element is sized such that a variation of its resonant natural frequency in torsion with temperature is similar to a variation of a resonant natural frequency in bending of the beams with temperature.

2. The gyrometer according to claim 1, wherein the elastic return element of a transverse element comprises at least one beam elongated in a direction perpendicular to the Oy axis such that the torsion return force due to this elastic return element is essentially due to the resistance of this elongated beam to bending.

3. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the elastic return element comprises two elongated beams approximately parallel to each other and attached to each other at their ends on a same side, a central part of one of the beams being attached to the transverse element and a central part of the other beam being attached to a central part of the frame.

4. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the elastic return element comprises first, second and third approximately parallel elongated beams, a first beam attached through one of its end to the transverse element, a second beam attached through one of its ends to the frame, and a third beam attached through one of its ends to the other end of the first beam and through its other end to the other end of the second beam.

5. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the micro-machined sensitive element of the gyrometer comprises a first pair of two first excitation beams and a second pair of two second excitation beams, the excitation beams in the first and second pairs being located in a same Oxy plane of a reference coordinate system and parallel to a sensitive axis YY′

coincident with the Oy axis, the first and second pairs being located on each side and at approximately equal distances from the YY′

axis, each pair of excitation beams comprising a central mass connecting the two beams in a pair at their mid point, a mass m1 at a middle of the first pair and a mass m2 at a middle of the second pair, the ends of the excitation beams located on the same side being connected to a first transverse element and to a second transverse element respectively located in the same Oxy plane of the excitation beams and approximately perpendicular to these beams, the first transverse element and the second transverse elements being attached to a first elastic torsion return element and to a second elastic torsion return element respectively.

6. The gyrometer according to claim 5, wherein each of the elastic return elements comprises a first elongated beam and a second elongated beam along a direction perpendicular to the sensitive axis TT′

, the first elongated beam being attached to a transverse element and the second elongated beam being attached to a frame, the first and second elongated beams being attached to each other through their ends on a same side.

7. The gyrometer according to claim 6, wherein the first transverse element is attached to the first elongated beam of the first elastic return element by a first rigid element located along the sensitive axis YY′

at a central part of this first elongated beam, the second elongated beam of the same elastic return element being attached to a first frame through a second rigid element located on the YY′

axis at the central part of the second elongated beam, the two ends located on a same side of the two elongated beams are attached through a third rigid element and a fourth rigid element respectively, and in that the second transverse element is attached to the first elongated beam through the first rigid element located in the YY′

sensitive axis at the central part of the first elongated beam, the second elongated beam being attached to a second frame through the second rigid element located in the YY′

sensitive axis at the central part of the second elongated beam, the two ends on the same side of the elongated beams being attached through the third rigid element, and the fourth rigid element respectively.

8. The gyrometer according to claim 5, wherein each elastic return element comprises first, second, and third beams elongated in a direction perpendicular to the YY′

sensitive axis, a first elongated beam being attached at one of its ends to a transverse element, a second elongated beam being attached at one of its ends to a frame, and a third elongated beam being attached at one of its two ends to the other end of the first elongated beam and at the other end to the other end of the second elongated beam.

9. The gyrometer according to claim 8, wherein the first transverse element is attached to a first end of the first elongated beam through the first elastic return element through a first rigid element located in the YY′

sensitive axis of the sensitive element, the second elongated beam being attached by one of its ends to the first frame through a second rigid element located in the YY′

sensitive axis, the third elongated beam being attached at its two ends through a third rigid element to the other end of the first elongated beam and through a fourth rigid element to the other end of the second elongated beam, and in that the second transverse element is attached to one of the ends of the first elongated beam of the second elastic return element, through the first rigid element located in the YY′

axis of the second return element, the second elongated beam being attached through one of its ends to the second frame through the second rigid element located in the YY′

sensitive axis, the third elongated beam being attached at its two ends through the third rigid element to the other end of the first elongated beam, and through the fourth rigid element to the other end of the second elongated beam.

10. The gyrometer according to claim 3, wherein the elongated beams are short in the direction of the Oy sensitive axis to have strong resistance to torsion.

11. The gyrometer according to claim 7, wherein the rigid elements are wider and shorter beams than the elongated beams.

12. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the micro-machined sensitive element comprises a first pair of excitation beams and a second pair of excitation beams, these excitation beams being fixed at their ends located on a same side on a first transverse element, the other ends of the first and second pair of excitation beams being connected to masses m1 and m2 respectively, the micro-machined sensitive element comprising the only elastic return element connecting a central part of the first transverse element to a first frame.

13. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the transverse element and the frame are connected through a cascade of elastic return elements, a first elastic return element being connected to the first transverse element of the sensitive element through a first rigid element, a next elastic return element being connected to the first elastic return element through an intermediate rigid element, and so on until a last elastic return element is connected to the frame through a second rigid element.

14. The gyrometer according to claim 2, wherein the elastic return element is attached firstly to the transverse element through a first pair of small beams and secondly to the frame through a second pair of small beams along the sensitive axis YY′

and along the XX′

axis with dimensions that are very small compared with a length of the elongated beams, the two small beams in one of the first pair and the second pair being located close to and on each side of the sensitive axis YY′

.