Denso Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Itaru Ishii

Tameharu Ohta

Tetsuo Fujii

Takeshi Ito

Masanobu Azukawa

Tomoki Tanemura

Tatsuya Kamiya

Takashi Aoki

Tetsuya Katoh

Takeshi Shinoda

Keisuke Nakano

An ultrasonic sensor includes: an ultrasonic element provided to transmit or receive an ultrasonic wave propagating along a directional axis; and an element housing case that includes a case diaphragm having a thickness direction along the directional axis. A resonant space is defined between the case diaphragm and the ultrasonic element for the propagating wave, by housing the ultrasonic element while separating the ultrasonic element from the case diaphragm. A horn shape is defined in the element housing case in which a width of the resonant space in a direction orthogonal to the directional axis is reduced as the resonant space extends in an axial direction parallel to the directional axis.

Ultrasonic sensor

An ultrasonic sensor includes: an element storage case including a case-side diaphragm having a thickness direction along a directional axis; and an ultrasonic element accommodated in the element storage case and spaced apart from the case-side diaphragm. The ultrasonic element includes an element-side diaphragm having the thickness direction along the directional axis and provided by a thin part of a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate is arranged to provide a closed space between the case-side diaphragm and the element-side diaphragm. The semiconductor substrate is fixed and supported by the element-storage case.

An ultrasonic sensor includes an ultrasonic element and an element accommodation case. A side wall portion of the element accommodation case has a tubular shape surrounding a directional central axis. A bottom wall portion and a top wall portion of the element accommodation case cover ends of the side wall portion in a direction along the directional central axis. The top wall portion has a diaphragm portion. The bottom wall portion supports the ultrasonic element. For example, the ultrasonic element is opposed to the diaphragm portion across a gap defining an interval corresponding to an integral multiple of half of a wavelength of ultrasonic vibration. Alternatively, the diaphragm portion is formed of a material having an acoustic impedance of 50&#xd7;10Pa&#xb7;s/m or more and 5000&#xd7;10Pa&#xb7;s/m or less, and has a thickness of 1 mm or less.

A physical quantity sensor includes a sensor portion, a casing, and a vibration isolator. The casing includes a supporting portion with a supporting surface that is located to face an end surface of the sensor portion. The vibration isolator is located between the end surface of the sensor portion and the supporting surface of the casing to join the sensor portion to the casing. The vibration isolator reduces a relative vibration between the sensor portion and the casing.

Physical quantity sensor and method of making the same

A physical quantity sensor includes a sensing portion, a casing, a vibration isolating member, an electrically conductive portion, a pad and a bonding wire. The casing encases the sensing portion therein. The vibration isolating member is disposed between the sensing portion and the casing to reduce a relative vibration between the sensing portion and the casing. The bonding wire electrically connects the electrically conductive portion provided on the casing and the pad provided on a surface of the sensing portion. The bonding wire extends from the pad to the electrically conductive portion and includes a bend. The bonding wire is configured to satisfy a relation of 20&#xd7;d&#x2266;h, in which d is an outer diameter of the bonding wire, and h is a dimension of the bonding wire with respect to a direction perpendicular to the surface of the sensing portion.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Itaru Ishii