Patent ID: 7801694

Claim:
A method for correcting thermally induced error in a gyroscope system, said gyroscope system including a monolithic vibrating structure, a drive element operatively coupled with said monolithic vibrating structure for generation of a vibration pattern on said monolithic vibrating structure, said drive element being driven by a drive source, a feedback element operatively coupled with said monolithic vibrating structure for detection of a resonant frequency of said monolithic vibrating structure, said resonant frequency of said monolithic vibrating structure being temperature dependent, the method comprising: providing a first calibration, said first calibration establishing an operating characteristic of said gyroscope system as a function of the temperature of said monolithic vibrating structure of said gyroscope system; providing a second calibration, said second calibration establishing an error function of said gyroscope system as a function of the temperature of said monolithic vibrating structure of said gyroscope system; measuring said operating characteristic of said monolithic vibrating structure; inferring a temperature of said monolithic structure from said first calibration based on said operating characteristic; inferring an error value of said error function corresponding to said temperature of said monolithic structure from said second calibration; and automatically correcting said rotation rate based on said error value inferred from said temperature of said monolithic structure.