Gyroscopes and compensation
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsChristopher B. Stell, Vatche Vorperian, Roman C. Gutierrez, Tony K. Tang
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Abstract
A gyroscope system can detect the amount of movement of the system. The gyroscope system includes a circuit that has a number of different features and detects movement independent of any circuit parameters. The first feature uses a feedback loop to compensate for difference in Q factors between the circuits. Another feature regulates the amplitude of the resonator. Yet another feature extracts the rotation rate signals from the gyroscope in a new way.
Claims7
A gyroscope circuit, comprising:
- a resonator having a variable capacitor;
- an outputting element configured to drive said resonator;
- a receiving element configured to receive a signal from the resonator indicative of a movement to be detected;
- a reference;
- and
- a feedback loop that establishes an amount of drive to the resonator based on the signal from the resonator and said reference, said feedback loop including an element operating to hold a voltage on the capacitor constant, such that a charge on the capacitor varies when its capacitance is varied.
A gyroscope circuit, which operates based on an output from a gyroscope element, comprising:
- a gyroscope element, including a variable capacitor, which produces an output indicative of movement to be measured;
- and
- a sensing circuit that produces an output indicative of the movement based on both amplitude and phase detected from the gyroscope element, said sensing circuit configured to hold a voltage on the capacitor constant, such that a charge on the capacitor varies based on movement of the variable capacitor.
A gyroscope circuit, which operates based on an output from a gyroscope element, comprising:
- a gyroscope element that produces an output indicative of movement to be measured;
- at least one amplifier, including transconductance amplifiers, which operates to produce signals indicative of first and second parts of movement from said gyroscope element;
- a summing circuit, summing said first and second parts;
- a differencing circuit, differencing said first and second parts;
- and
- a detection circuit, producing a movement indicative output based on outputs of both said summing circuit and said differencing circuit.
A method of detecting movement, comprising:
- obtaining an output signal from a gyroscope element indicative of movement to be measured said obtaining including using a variable capacitor associated with said gyroscope, such that a voltage on the capacitor is held constant to vary a charge on the capacitor;
- and
- using both an amplitude and a phase of the output signal to detect the movement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.