Microelectromechanical gyroscope having intrinsic sense signal demodulation and method of operating said gyroscope

A method of operating a microelectromechanical gyroscope, the gyroscope comprising:

• a support body;
• a drive mass, constrained to the support body to be able to oscillate along a drive direction;
• a sense mass, constrained to the drive mass to translate rigidly with the drive mass in the drive direction and to be able to oscillate with respect to the drive mass along a sense direction perpendicular to the drive direction;
• a movable sensing electrode, carried by the sense mass;
• and at least one fixed sensing electrode, anchored to the support body and capacitively coupled to the movable sensing electrode, wherein the movable sensing electrode and the at least one fixed sensing electrode are shaped so that a capacitance between the movable sensing electrode and the at least one fixed sensing electrode is a function of a position of the sense mass along the drive direction and of a position of the sense mass along the sense direction, the method comprising:
• causing the drive mass to oscillate along the drive direction;
• and
• extracting a sense signal, indicative of an oscillation of the sense mass along the sense direction;
• wherein the sense signal depends on a variation in the capacitance between the movable sensing electrode and the at least one fixed sensing electrode.

A method of operating a microelectromechanical gyroscope, comprising:

• causing a drive mass of the gyroscope to oscillate along a drive direction;
• causing a sense mass of the gyroscope to translate with the drive mass along the drive direction while oscillating, relative to the drive mass, along a sense direction perpendicular to the drive direction;
• and
• extracting a sense signal indicative of the oscillation of the sense mass along the sense direction, wherein the sense signal depends on a capacitance between a movable sensing electrode carried by the sense mass and at least one fixed sensing electrode anchored to a support body of the gyroscope, the capacitance varying as a function of a position of the sense mass along the drive direction and as a function of a position of the sense mass along the sense direction.