A High-Performance, Magnetically-Suspended, MEMS Spinning-Wheel Gyro

"This proposal presents an approach to the attainment of a family of practical, miniature, true high performance gyros that can be manufactured with low-cost MEMS-type technology. The approach centers on a method of generating substantial angular momentum,(greater than 2,000 dyne-cm-sec), which is equal to the momentum of some existing small conventional spinning-wheel gyros. By comparison, MEMS oscillatory silicon gyros have momentum typically eight orders of magnitude lower. The ability to generatelarge momentum in the complete absence of material-to-material contact by using a magnetically-suspended spinning wheel offers gyro performance and reliability equal to or greater than that of fiber gyros. The low-cost MEMS fabrication technology useselectrodeposition of widely-used magnetic materials or the electrochemical etching of conventionally-fabricated magnetic materials, technologies which are highly developed and available. The overall size of the gyro is projected to be only 2 cm x 2 cm and0.5 cm thick. Earlier studies confirmed that the design and fabrication of the magnetically-suspended wheel was feasible. This proposal addresses the design of a baseline gyro, performs an error analysis and projects the expected gyro performance for asubsequent Phase II build program. This concept has the potential of providing a family of rugged, affordable, miniature, reliable, long-lived high-performance gyros for a wide range of IRU