Cusp-singularity-enhanced Coriolis effect for sensitive chip-scale gyroscopes

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Gyroscopes are essential inertial sensors for rotation measurement across various industries.
• Chip-scale Coriolis vibratory gyroscopes (CVGs) offer size and cost benefits but suffer from lower performance due to weak Coriolis factors and Brownian noise.
• Existing CVGs face fundamental limits in sensitivity scaling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To overcome the performance limitations of chip-scale CVGs.
• To enhance the Coriolis factor and improve signal-to-noise ratio and precision.
• To demonstrate a novel method for ultrasensitive phase-modulated measurements in micro-gyroscopes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized third-order singularities within cusp catastrophes in phase-tracked oscillations of on-chip CVGs.
• Implemented a cubic-root scaling of Coriolis-effect-induced frequency modulation.
• Experimentally demonstrated the singularity-enhanced Coriolis effect.

Main Results:

• Achieved a three-orders-of-magnitude enhancement in the Coriolis factor.
• Reported a 253-fold improvement in signal-to-noise ratio and a 297-fold increase in precision.
• Demonstrated ultrasensitive phase-modulated sublinear measurement with record performance for silicon-chip gyroscopes.

Conclusions:

• The study presents a revolutionary advancement in gyroscope technology by enabling singularity-enhanced Coriolis effect observation and control.
• The findings pave the way for more sensitive and precise chip-scale gyroscopes.
• The demonstrated principles have potential applications in other ultrasensitive sensing technologies.