Micromachined polycrystalline diamond hemispherical shell resonators

The hemispherical resonator gyro (HRG) is low loss and high stability, spurring recent interest in micro-scale hemispherical resonators. To achieve mode-matching and high-Q performance in a hemispherical resonator, geometric symmetry in combination with low thermoelastic damping structural material are critical. In this work, we describe the development of millimeter scale 3D hemispherical shell resonators fabricated from polycrystalline diamond, a material with low thermoelastic damping and very high stiffness. The relation between the fourth harmonic (4θ) in a Fourier analysis of the resonator's radius r(θ) and frequency mismatch (Δf) of the 2θ elliptical vibration modes of the shell resonator is demonstrated.