Abstract
A new trapped-energy vibratory gyroscope, which uses the thickness-shear vibrations in a piezoelectric ceramic plate with a plano-mesa structure, is proposed and its principle of constitution is presented. This gyroscope has three electrodes for excitation and detection of the thickness-shear vibrations, and these electrodes are deposited in the central region of a piezoelectric ceramic plate with a plano-mesa structure, where only the plate thickness of the central region is partially increased. A trapped-energy vibratory gyroscope on a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic plate of 25×25 mm2 area and 2 mm thickness is constructed and studied, and its experimental results are presented. The results show that a highly reliable gyroscope with a simple solid structure can be realized, and a detection sensitivity of 1.7 mV/deg/s, which is proportional to the applied angular velocity, can be obtained when the driving voltage is 2 Vp-p and the total gain of the detecting circuit is 66 dB.