Trapped-energy vibratory gyroscopes using rotated Y-cut LiNbO3

In a rotated Y-cut plate of LiNbO₃, two orthogonal thickness-shear vibrations can be excited independently by electric fields perpendicular and parallel to the plate surface. Using the trapped-energy thickness-shear vibrations, piezoelectric vibratory gyroscopes of easy mount with no need of trimming are obtained. In this paper, a trapped-energy gyroscope using a rotated Y-cut of LiNbO₃ is proposed. It is shown experimentally that by choosing appropriate cuts the two orthogonal thickness-shear vibrations have close resonance frequencies, and the energy of the thickness-shear vibrations is trapped around the electrodes. The basic characteristics of a vibratory gyroscope using a 163° rotated Y-cut LiNbO₃ plate is presented