Development of a gyro test system at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology has developed a robust gyroscope based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. To assist the gyro development and manufacturing an automated test system was created. The system is low cost one with modular and flexible structure controlled by computer having both basic and advanced features. The first aim was to create flexible system to meet test requirements of different development stages of a gyro and then manufacturing. The further major objectives of the work were accurate measurement of gyro characteristics, comprehensive characterization and performance evaluation, reducing of gyro development cycle time by the test system using suitable hardware and software combination. Methodology of the system is building an automated, modular, scalable, flexible system using of available standalone equipment with PC remote operation capabilities. The test system is hierarchically controlled by host computer with General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) interface and special software, and may consist of various required and optional equipment. The software written in Visual Basic has both data acquisition and analysis capabilities providing: a flexible utilization each unit of the equipment, redistribution of computational power between host computer and standalone instruments, data saving in a detailed form for quick and convenient postprocessing and plotting. The software structure is built using a concept of object oriented programming. Latest software allows to carry out calibration and 7 different tests including a frequency response, phase delay, output signal level, signal-to-noise ratio, power spectral density of noise, time domain noise level, and many calculated parameters, such as scale factor, linearity error and others. The test procedure follows as much as possible recommended guidelines of IEEE standards for gyroscope testing. In this paper, principles of the test system, application, results and future demands are discussed.