Bio-inspired micro-fluidic angular-rate sensor for vestibular prostheses.

This paper presents an alternative approach for angular-rate sensing based on the way that the natural vestibular semicircular canals operate, whereby the inertial mass of a fluid is used to deform a sensing structure upon rotation. The presented gyro has been fabricated in a commercially available MEMS process, which allows for microfluidic channels to be implemented in etched glass layers, which sandwich a bulk-micromachined silicon substrate, containing the sensing structures. Measured results obtained from a proof-of-concept device indicate an angular rate sensitivity of less than 1 °/s, which is similar to that of the natural vestibular system.