Dynamic analysis of a microelectromechanical systems resonant gyroscope excited using combination parametric resonance

Abstract This paper investigates the application of parametric excitation to a resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscope. The modal equations of motion of an electrostatically actuated ring are derived and shown to be coupled via the electrostatic stiffness. Such electrostatic coupling between in-plane modes of vibration permits parametric instabilities that may be exploited in a novel excitation scheme. A multiple time scale perturbation method is used to analyse the response of the ring gyroscope to the combination parametric excitations with the principal objective of separating the drive and response frequencies of the ring gyroscope. As pairs of flexural modes of the perfect ring are degenerate, the combination excitation between distinct modes demand the ring to be analysed as a four degree of freedom system. Slight mis-tuning between the otherwise degenerate modes is incorporated in the perturbation analysis. The results of the perturbation analysis are subsequently used to determine the stability boundaries for a typical ring gyroscope when excited using a sum combination resonance between the flexural modes of order 2 and 5. In this case, the ratio of the drive and response frequencies is approximately 10:1. Drive and sense configurations that enable effective parametric excitation of a desired mode are investigated. Simulation of the oscillator scheme is achieved using MATLAB Simulink and this validates the perturbation analysis. Agreement between the models within 10 per cent is demonstrated.