Method of manufacturing a tuning fork with reduced quadrature errror and symmetrical mass balancing

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of:

• forming a pair of elongated tines which have front and rear surfaces and are disposed symmetrically about an axis, applying mass elements to the tines, and removing portions of the mass elements from the front surface of one tine and from the rear surface of the other to reduce quadrature displacement in the tines and maintain a balance in mass between the tines.

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of:

• forming a pair of elongated tines which have front and rear surfaces and are disposed symmetrically about an axis, and adding mass elements to the front surface of one tine and the rear surface of the other tine to eliminate quadrature displacement in the tines and maintain a balance in mass between the tines.

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of forming a pair of elongated tines having free ends of increased lateral dimension with laterally offset balancing masses on opposite sides of the tines near the free ends, and adjusting the balancing masses on opposite sides of the two tines to reduce quadrature displacement in the tines and maintain a balance in mass between the tines.

A method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, comprising the steps of:

• forming a pair of elongated tines with free ends of increased lateral dimension of a material which is transparent to a laser beam, forming laterally offset balancing masses on opposite sides of the tines near the free ends, and trimming the balancing mass on one side of one of the tines by passing the laser beam through the tine to the balancing mass.

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of:

• forming an elongated pair of drive tines having front and rear surfaces, forming a pair of pickup tines having front and rear surfaces, applying balancing masses to the front and rearsurfaces of the drive tines, and trimming the balancing masses on opposite sides of the drive tines to reduce quadrature displacement without affecting mass balance between the drive tines.

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of:

• forming a pair of elongated tines which have front and rear surfaces and are disposed symmetrically about an axis, applying balancing masses to the front and rear surfaces of the tines, trimming the balancing masses if necessary to provide a balance in mass between the two tines, and thereafter removing substantially equal amounts of the balancing masses from the front surface of one of the tines and from the rear surface of the other tine to reduce quadrature displacement in the tines and maintain the balance in mass between tines.

In a method of manufacturing a tuning fork for use in an inertial rate sensor, the steps of:

• forming elongated pairs of drive and pickup tines which have front and rearsurfaces and extend in opposite directions from a central body, applying balancing masses to the front and rear surfaces of the drive tines, trimming the balancing masses if necessary to provide a balance in mass between the drive tines, and thereafter removing substantially equal amounts of the balancing masses from the front surface of one of the drive tines and from the rear surface of the other drive tine to reduce quadrature displacement in the drive tines and maintain the balance in mass between them.