Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Nihon Dempa Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Jiro Terada

Masami Tamura

Toshihiko Ichinose

Hiroshi Takenaka

Takami Ishida

Tsuneharu Nitta

Hideo Ohkoshi

Satoshi Ohuchi

Hiroyuki Aizawa

Masaharu Ushihara

Ichirou Satou

Yohei Ashimori

Nobuhisa Atoji

Hiroshi Senda

Sumio Sugawara

Masashi Konno

Kazumitsu Ueda

Takahiro Manabe

Mikio Nozu

Yasuhito Osada

Masaya Nakatani

Takeshi Uemura

Junichi Yukawa

Hitoshi Nishimura

Kikuo Kaino

Takeshi Yamamoto

Kozo Ono

Masahiro Yasumi

Yukihiko Ise

Katsunori Matsubara

Fumio Fukushima

Masakazu Hatanaka

Minoru Ishihara

Hiroaki Mouri

Masayoshi Murakami

Kiyohito Nakazawa

Sumitake Yoshida

Kuniharu Nakamaru

An inertial force sensor includes a detecting device which detects an inertial force, the detecting device having a first orthogonal arm and a supporting portion, the first orthogonal arm having a first arm and a second arm fixed in a substantially orthogonal direction, and the supporting portion supporting the first arm. The second arm has a folding portion. In this configuration, there is provided a small inertial force sensor which realizes detection of a plurality of different inertial forces and detection of inertial forces of a plurality of detection axes.

Angular velocity sensor

Inertial force sensor

A vibration piezoelectric acceleration sensor including a pair of beam shaped members linearly and oppositely disposed on a frame, a support body supporting the beam shaped member, and a holding part holding the support body moveably in a linear direction, and another pair of beam shaped members disposed linearly and oppositely crossing the pair of beam shaped members detecting acceleration in two axes, i.e. X and Y directions. The beam shaped members are extended and retracted by the acceleration transmitted to the support body through the holding part, changing a natural oscillation frequency. Accordingly, a high change ratio of resonance frequency can be provided with the detection of the acceleration, and the acceleration in the direction of two axes can be detected without being affected by a change in temperature.

Vibration piezoelectric acceleration sensor

The vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor element includes a frame; and a diaphragm, support, and retentive part, provided in the frame. The diaphragm includes a bottom electrode layer, a piezoelectric thin-film layer formed on the bottom electrode layer, and a top electrode layer formed on the piezoelectric thin-film layer. A first end of the diaphragm is connected to the frame. The support retains a second end of the diaphragm. The retentive part retains the support so that the support is reciprocable only in a direction through the first end and the second end of the diaphragm.

Vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor element and vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor therewith

Here disclosed is an angular velocity sensor with much accuracy, not allowing other vibration components to mix into the Coriolis force component. The angular velocity sensor contains a first through a fifth beams: the first, the second, and the third beams have a length of substantially the same and disposed in a substantially parallel arrangement on a substantially the same plane&mdash;with the first beam placed between the second and the third; the fourth connects each one end of the first through the third, while the fifth connects each other end of them. The first beam is supportively fixed at its mid-portion. The first beam serves as a detector; the second serves as a driver; and the third serves as a monitor.

The invention provides an angular velocity sensor capable of obtaining vibration which is close to a linear-operation for a large amplitude input, and a high sensitivity at the same time. The sensor comprises a vibrator, which is made of a piezoelectric element having a perovskite crystal structure expressed as ABO , and 0.1-1.0 wt. % of MnO is added to this piezoelectric element.

An integral bimorph angular rate sensor is formed by directly bonding two tuning fork members in the thickness direction to enhance the detecting sensitivity of the angular velocity sensor. The individual tuning fork members are formed from a single crystalline piezoelectric material such as quartz and are bonded in the crystal axis direction as to establish a piezoelectric phenomenon wherein the piezoelectric materials of the bonded tuning fork members have inverse polarities in their width or thickness directions.

Angular velocity sensor and process for manufacturing the same

An angular velocity sensor driving circuit includes a driving part for a vibrator, a vibration level detector, a coriolis force detector, a first amplifier for amplifying an output signal of the vibration level detector, a rectifying circuit, a variable gain amplifier, a voltage amplifier, a level judging circuit and switching means. The gain of the voltage amplifier or the gain of a variable gain amplifier is varied by a switching circuit which is controlled by the output signal of a level judging circuit which compares the output signal of the rectifying circuit and a reference voltage. By using the switching circuit rapid start up of the angular velocity sensor can be achieved.

Angular velocity sensor driving circuit

The invention relates to an angular velocity sensor used in posture control of a moving element or navigation system, and is intended to realize higher sensitivity, lower offset, lower offset drift, lower translation acceleration sensitivity, and higher impact resistance in a small size and at low cost. Being made of ceramic piezoelectric material or crystal material, the constitution comprises four parallel oscillating arms 12 to 15, or 112 to 115, and a support member 11, or 111 for supporting one end of the oscillating arms or both ends commonly, in which outer two oscillating arms 12, 15, or 112, 115 of a compound tuning fork 10, or 110 in a comb shape of which position of the inside root of two oscillating arms each on inside and outside to the support member 11, or 111 in the oscillating arm direction is matched or different are used in the driving side tuning for, while inner two oscillating arms 13, 14, or 113, 114 are used in the detecting side tuning fork so as to correspond between driving and detection.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Jiro Terada