Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) have been seen as offering the most promising, economical way forward for cost-effective, compact inertial and gyro solutions for almost every application going.
However, in the past, MEMS gyro and accelerometer components from which inertial and gyro systems are built have not provided performance anywhere near as good as laser gyros (ring laser gyros, or RLG) used in the majority of high-performance inertial systems. Now, as new MEMS inertial systems have begun to hit the market in recent months, the envelope appears to be opening up on achieving pretty high performance.
Bestech Australia is introducing the brand new G200 Dual Axis MEMS Gyro from Gladiator's breakthrough gyro technology enabling an ultra-low noise (ARW Noise 0.002°/sec/√Hz 1σ ) and bandwidth of 200Hz that has performance commensurate with much more expensive small Dynamically Tuned Gyros. It also features industry leading bias in-run and bias over temperature. Designed for commercial stabilisation and aircraft applications, the gyro has a bipolar signal outputting balanced 0V ±5V.
Weighing only 18 grams, integrated with temperature sensor and self-testing, the new G200 inertial MEMS Gyro provides 0.005°/sec/g 1σ G-sensitivity, consuming ultra-low power (<10 mA Typical) and a shock resistance for 500g. Environmentally sealed with bipolar output signal and bandwidth of 200 Hz, the G200 2 axis gyro will deliver outstanding performance in applications such as Platform Stabilisation, EO/IR Stabilisation, Antenna Stabilisation and Pointing, Flight Control, Navigation, Automotive Testing and Laboratory Use.
Bestech Australia's long term partner Gladiator designs its own high-performance MEMS gyros and accelerometers and uses a fabless model to produce them. It also has released the latest Landmark 50 INS/GPS with low noise MEMS gyros and accelerometers which claims 1 degree/hour drift rate in-run — as good as an 8-cm path length ring-laser gyro — something of an achievement for a MEMS-based device. (That’s a 2 Euro coin used in the photo for size reference.)
The product line Bestech Australia distributing goes all the way from automotive gyros up to the latest high-performance GPS/INS, and includes basic angular rate sensors and accelerometer packages.
Applications include: Automotive testing, agricultural motion sensing, motorsport racing, instrumentation (including robotics and flight testing), rail, marine and energy motion detection, military land-vehicle and marine platform stabilisation and navigation, electro-optical/infra-red targeting and stabilisation, launcher and missile stabilisation/navigation, and unmanned vehicles.
