Machine learning-driven discovery of high-performance MEMS disk resonator gyroscope structural topologies

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2024 Oct 30;10(1):161. doi: 10.1038/s41378-024-00792-4.

Abstract

The design of the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) disc resonator gyroscope (DRG) structural topology is crucial for its physical properties and performance. However, creating novel high-performance MEMS DRGs has long been viewed as a formidable challenge owing to their enormous design space, the complexity of microscale physical effects, and time-consuming finite element analysis (FEA). Here, we introduce a new machine learning-driven approach to discover high-performance DRG topologies. We represent the DRG topology as pixelated binary matrices and formulate the design task as a path-planning problem. This path-planning problem is solved via deep reinforcement learning (DRL). In addition, we develop a convolutional neural network-based surrogate model to replace the expensive FEA to provide reward signals for DRL training. Benefiting from the computational efficiency of neural networks, our approach achieves a significant acceleration ratio of 4.03 × 105 compared with FEA, reducing each DRL training run to only 426.5 s. Through 8000 training runs, we discovered 7120 novel structural topologies that achieve navigation-grade precision. Many of these surpass traditional designs in performance by several orders of magnitude, revealing innovative solutions previously unconceived by humans.