3-Axis Digital Gyroscope Sensor

First 3-Axis Digital Gyroscope In A Single Sensor Package

A gyroscope senses any change in an object’s axis of rotation. Up until now, gyroscopes measured movement around the three axes with three sensors—one for pitch, one for yaw, and another for roll. At most, two of these sensors would be combined on a single die. STMicroelectronics unveiled a 4mm x 4mm x 1mm (slightly over 1/4" square) gyroscope whose single sensing structure tracks all three angular motions. It’s a triumph of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) engineering.

”Cellphone companies continually demand smaller size, less power, and lower cost,” says Jay Esfandyari, MEMS product marketing manager at ST. ”The aim now is to eventually shrink the [gyroscopes] significantly in the near future, down to about the [3-mm square] average footprint of accelerometers” typically used in smartphones.

The new 3-axis digital gyroscope comes preset with one of three sensitivity levels, which allow the device to trade speed for resolution. For gaming, it can capture movements as quick as 2000 degrees per second but can distinguish only movements larger than 70 millidegrees per second per digit. For the more controlled point-and-click movement of a user interface—say a wand or a wearable mouse—the gyroscope can pick up movements as fast as 500 degrees per second and distinguish movements of 18 millidegrees per second per digit or more. The most sensitive version, which picks up only 250 degrees per second, can sense a mere 9 millidegrees per second per digit.

IEEE Spectrum