Application of deep reactive ion etching for silicon angular rate sensor

A new silicon resonant angular rate sensor by deep reactive ion etching was developed. The sensor consists of a glass-silicon-glass structure. To have a sensor of high Q factor, a one-side suspended tuning fork structure was adopted. The silicon resonator structure which has high aspect ratio was machined by reactive ion etching. The etching gas of the RIE was SR6 and etching rate was 0.8 μm/min. The resonator is driven electromagnetically and the torsional vibration caused by the Coriolis force is detected capacitively. The test device showed a sensitivity of 6 fFsec./deg. and had an output to the angular rate in a range from −360 deg./sec to 240 deg/sec.

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