Design and Modelling of a Bio-inspired MEMS Gyroscope

Abstract

Blowfly (Calliphora vicina) use a special organ, the halteres, to navigate its flight course. The halteres, functioning as vibrating gyroscope, are small modified hind wings, which beat antiphase to the wings and serve a purely sensory function during flight. In this paper, we propose a design of Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) gyroscope, inspired from the haltere. Our haltere-inspired MEMS gyroscope consists of a circular shape thick mass with pillar, suspended by thinner circular membrane or beams, to the surrounding Silicon substrate. The pillar is designed to have two different circumference diameters, inspired from the haltere’s knobbed structure. The pillar and the thick circular mass will be the resonating structure, having two resonant modes; the driving modes (x-axis) and the sensing mode (y-axis). The resonating structure is driven in the x-axis direction by an electrostatic force that is generated by a driving voltage across the electrodes on the substrate and the bottom of the moving structure. The Coriolis acceleration arising from an angular rate around the z-axis causes the moving structure to vibrate in the y-axis sensing direction. The deflection of the thick mass in the y-axis can be detected using capacitance detection or piezoresistive sensing.