Eads Deutschland Gmbh

Erwin Stenzel

Helmut Seidel

Josef Schalk

Karin Bauer

Ralf Voss

Rainer Freitag

Ulrich Prechtel

Winfried Kupke

Matthias Aikele

Roland Hilser

Matthias Rose

A self-testing sensor (especially to measure an angular rate or acceleration) includes a resonant structure, an actor unit configured to excite the structure to a first periodic vibration, a piezoresistive element configured to generate an output signal that depends on the measured quantity, and an isolator configured to isolate a test signal component from the output signal, whereby the test signal component is generated by a second periodic vibration of the structure superposed on the first vibration. A device for self-testing a sensor includes an isolator configured to isolate a test signal component superposed on a useful signal component from the periodic output signal of the sensor, and it includes a comparator configured to compare the test signal component with a predefined value or a test signal fed to the sensor. For the self-test, a second periodic vibration is superposed on a first vibration of the structure, and an output signal containing information on the measured quantity is determined. A test signal component contained in the output signal is monitored.

Sensor having a resonance structure, especially an acceleration or rotation rate sensor, and a device for carrying out a self-test

A rate of rotation sensor is suggested which is structured out of silicon (silicon compounds or silicon/glass compounds) or other semiconductor materials by means of micromechanical techniques. The rate of rotation sensor has the form of a tuning fork whose prongs are situated in planes in parallel to the surface of the semiconductor wafer. These prongs are exited to carry out vibrations in a plane perpendicular to the wafer plane. By means of a sensor element which registers the torsion of the tuning fork suspension, the angular velocity of a rotation of the sensor about an axis in parallel to the tuning fork suspension is measured.

Micromechanical rate of rotation sensor (DRS)

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Deisenhofen, Germany

Erwin Stenzel