MEMS Optomechanical inertial measurement unit (IMU)

The team of ATA and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) will design and fabricate a novel Tactical MEMS Accelerometer and Gyro (TMAG) as the basis of a high-end tactical grade IMU. TMAG will incorporate a novel design that is both a single-axis yaw gyroscope and single-axis accelerometer with a size of 5 x 5 mm. Three TMAGs can then be aligned orthogonally to make a 6-axis IMU. The IMU would be less than 1 in^3, consume an order of magnitude less power, be 2-3 times more sensitive and have higher mechanical stiffness and bandwidth than state-of-the-art tactical IMUs such as the HG1700 and LN200. All of this is possible give the recent large advances SNL has recently made in micromachined MEMS that have once again made the MEMS vibratory gyroscope a competitive solution for ultra-small SWaP tactical grade IMUs. Moreover, SNL has simultaneously developed and refined a state-of-the-art displacement sensing unit which provides orders of magnitude better displacement sensitivity than any competing method when size is constrained. Approved for Public Release 14-MDA-8047 (14 Nov 14)