Estimation of material properties in a MEMS based gyroscope using natural frequencies

This paper addresses the prediction of the distributed material properties of a microstructure. Predictions were made by measuring the dynamic response of fabricated materials used in the microstructures. When these distributed material properties are used to estimate the mechanical performance of microstructures, differences between computer simulations and the experimental results can be reduced, and reliable design can be developed. The distributed material properties of a micro-electromechanical system(MEMS)-based gyroscope were obtained numerically using the proposed method and experimentally using dynamic testing. The natural frequency of the numerical analysis was slightly higher (first mode: - 0.43 Hz, second mode: 0.33 Hz) than the result from the dynamic testing because some properties such as the microstructure porosity were neglected.