Magnetically suspended MEMS spinning wheel gyro

A novel concept of a magnetically suspended spinning wheel gyro is described. The gyro is based on a novel, patented, planar magnetic actuator and position sensor configuration with a gyro wheel that is rotated by a multi-phase electromagnetic spin motor. The motor and actuator/sensor configurations, in addition to providing the necessary forces to suspend the spinning wheel, are amenable to fabrication using some of the developing MEMS fabrication technologies, making batch fabrication of the gyro possible. This will provide the capability for high production yield in high volume through the use of batch processing, without the need for skilled hand labor, resulting in high yields, high reliability, and low cost of ownership. The gyro concept is described in detail. The high-speed rotation of the wheel, somewhat smaller than a dime, can produce an angular momentum much larger than that of the Coriolis force based MEMS gyros now receiving intensive development, and is expected to provide considerably higher performance than currently available from this class of instrument. Two axes of angular rate information and three axes of acceleration information are provided by the control loops that center the wheel within the case. Thus, two such magnetically suspended spinning wheel gyros can be used to implement a complete IMU, and can also provide redundancy in three of the five degrees of freedom.