Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Kiyoko Yamanaka

Heewon Jeong

Masahide Hayashi

Yasushi Goto

Toshiaki Nakamura

Daisuke Maeda

Takashi Hattori

Kengo Suzuki

Chisaki Takubo

Tsukasa Fujimori

Takehiko Hasebe

Yuhua Zhang

Hideaki Takano

Kazunori Ohta

Jeong Heewon

Hee-Won Jeong

Provided is a highly reliable acceleration sensor having little 0-point drift. For example, an acceleration sensor having a support substrate having a first direction and a second direction orthogonal thereto in a single surface, a device layer disposed on the support substrate with a space interposed therebetween and having a weight that deforms according to the application of acceleration, and a cap layer disposed on the device layer with a space interposed therebetween, wherein a fixed part fixed to the support substrate is provided in the center of the weight, a beam is provided that extends from the fixed part and makes the weight mobile by being connected thereto, a plurality of posts for coupling the support substrate and the cap layer are disposed on the fixed part, and electric signals are applied to and received from the weight via the posts.

Acceleration detection device

A movable part rotates about a rotation axis, which passes through a support, when an inertial force in a detecting direction is applied to an inertial sensor. The movable part includes a first region and a second region displaced in a direction opposite to a direction of the first region when the inertial force is applied. A second substrate includes first and second detection electrodes opposed to the first and second regions, respectively. The first detection electrode and the second detection electrode are provided symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis. A cavity is provided symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis. In a direction perpendicular to the detecting direction and a direction in which the rotation axis extends, a length from the rotation axis to an end of the first region and a length from the rotation axis to an end of the second region are different.

Inertial sensor

An inertial sensor not susceptible to temperature change and vibration disturbance in an implementation environment of the inertial sensor is provided. In the present invention, for example, as illustrated in FIG., an extending portion EXU is provided so as to connect to a fixing portion FU, this extending portion EXU and a third region Pwhich configures part of a mass body MS are connected via a support beam BMand a support beam BM, and the support beam BMand the support beam BMare disposed oppositely with respect to a virtual line IL. With this, natural frequency of an unwanted mode due to rotation and torsion of the mass body MS can be shifted to a high frequency band.

Provided is an angular velocity sensor including a plurality of angular velocity detection units each outputting a different detection result, and including a common driving circuit to drive the angular velocity detection units. The angular velocity detection units of the angular velocity sensor of the present invention are configured to have different driving amplitudes when being driven by a driving signal at the same frequency.

Angular velocity sensor

A semiconductor physical quantity detection sensor includes (1) a first electrostatic capacitance formed by the movable electrode, and a first fixed electrode formed in a first conductive layer shared with the movable electrode, (2) a second electrostatic capacitance that is formed by the movable electrode, and a second fixed electrode formed in a second conductive layer different in a height from a substrate surface from the movable electrode, and (3) an arithmetic circuit that calculates the physical quantity on the basis of a change in the first and second electrostatic capacitances generated when the physical quantity is applied. In this configuration, an electric signal from the first electrostatic capacitance, and an electric signal from the second electrostatic capacitance are input to the arithmetic circuit.

Semiconductor physical quantity detecting sensor

In order to provide an inertial sensor capable of suppressing a wrong diagnosis even in an adverse environment such that sudden noise occurs, an inertial sensor is provided with a movable part (), a first detection unit (C, C) for detecting the amount of displacement of the movable part (), a forced vibration means (, C, C) for forcedly vibrating the movable part () by applying a diagnosis signal, a physical quantity calculation unit () for calculating the physical quantity from a detection signal from the first detection unit (C, C), and an abnormality determination unit () for determining the presence or absence of the abnormality for the physical quantity using the diagnosis signal obtained via the first detection unit (C, C), and is used within a vehicle, the inertial sensor further comprising a second sensor () mounted in the same vehicle and connected to the abnormality determination unit ().

To provide a combined sensor that can detect a plurality of physical quantities. With the combined sensor, it is possible to realize, while maintaining performance, a reduction in size and a reduction in costs by increasing elements that can be shared among respective sensors. A weight Mand a detection electrode DTEused in an angular-velocity detecting section are also used as a reference capacitive element of a Z-direction-acceleration detecting section configured to detect acceleration in a Z direction. That is, in the Z-direction-acceleration detecting section, a detection capacitive element including the weight Mand the detection electrode DTEconfiguring the angular-velocity detecting section is used as a reference capacitive element for a detection capacitive element formed by a detection electrode DTEand a weight M

Combined sensor

Provided is an inertial sensor device comprising a detection part having an MEMS structure, wherein convenience during sensor installation is ensured while erroneous operation caused by the application of external vibration is controlled. To achieve this objective, an anti-vibration structure () is provided in the inertial sensor device, between a semiconductor chip () mounted on a package substrate and a semiconductor chip () comprising a sensor detection part. The anti-vibration structure () has a structure in which the periphery of an anti-vibration part () is surrounded by an anti-vibration part () comprising a material having a larger Young's modulus.

Physical quantity detector

An inertial sensor capable of making pressure of a space in which an inertial sensor such as an acceleration sensor is placed to be higher than that during a sealing step and improving reliability is provided. The inertial sensor can be achieved by means of making an inertial sensor including a substrate, a movable portion on the substrate, a cap member which seals the movable portion so as to cover the movable portion, wherein a gas-generating material is applied to the movable portion side of the cap.

Inertial sensor and method of manufacturing the same

A technique in which a false detection and a wrong diagnosis can be suppressed in a capacitance sensor represented by an acceleration sensor is provided. A first capacitative element and a second capacitative element, which configure a capacitance detection unit, and a third capacitative element and a fourth capacitative element, which configure a forced oscillation generation unit, are electrically separated from each other. That is, the diagnosis movable electrode that configures the third capacitative element and the fourth capacitative element is formed integrally with the movable part. On the other hand, the diagnosis fixed electrode and the diagnosis fixed electrode are electrically separated from the detection fixed electrode and the detection fixed electrode.

Capacitance sensor

An angular rate sensor and an acceleration sensor are sealed at the same sealing pressure. The sealing pressure at this time is put into a reduced pressure state below the atmospheric pressure in view of improving a detection sensitivity of the angular rate sensor. Even in the reduced pressure atmosphere, to improve the detection sensitivity of the acceleration sensor, a shift suppressing portion (damper) for suppressing shifts of a movable body of the acceleration sensor is provided. This shift suppressing portion includes a plurality of protruding portions integrally formed with the movable body and a plurality of protruding portions integrally formed with a peripheral portion, and the protruding portions are alternately disposed separately at equal intervals.

Techniques capable of suppressing fixation between a movable electrode and a fixed electrode in an inertial sensor and preventing the inertial sensor from malfunctioning are provided. The movable electrode, the fixed electrode provided so as to face the movable electrode, a peripheral conductor facing both the movable electrode and the fixed electrode, and a demodulation circuit and a voltage adjustment circuit which adjust the electric potential of the peripheral conductor so that the electric potential of the peripheral conductor becomes the same as the electric potential of the movable electrode are provided, and a change in the capacitance between the movable electrode and the fixed electrode is detected.

As well as achieving both downsizing and thickness reduction and sensitivity improvement of a semiconductor device that has: a MEMS sensor formed by bulk micromachining technique such as an acceleration sensor and an angular rate sensor; and an LSI circuit, a packaging structure of the semiconductor device having the MEMS sensor and the LSI circuit can be simplified. An integrated circuit having MISFETs and wirings is formed on a silicon layer of an SOI substrate, and the MEMS sensor containing a structure inside is formed by processing a substrate layer of the SOI substrate. In other words, by using both surfaces of the SOI substrate, the integrated circuit and the MEMS sensor are mounted on one SOI substrate. The integrated circuit and the MEMS sensor are electrically connected to each other by a through-electrode provided in the SOI substrate.

Semiconductor device with integrated circuit electrically connected to a MEMS sensor by a through-electrode

It is an objective to achieve a MEMS switch which can be mounted with a CMOS circuit and has a contact point with high reliability, both mechanically and electrically. An insulator having a compatibility with a CMOS process is formed at the contact surface of a cantilever beam constituting a MEMS switch and a fixed contactopposite thereto. When the switch is used the cantilever beam is moved by applying a voltage to the pull-in electrode and the cantilever beam. After the cantilever beam makes contact with the fixed contact, a voltage exceeding the breakdown field strength of the insulator is applied to the insulator, resulting in dielectric breakdown occurring. By modifying the insulator once, the mechanical fatigue concentration point of the switch contact point is protected, and a contact point is achieved as well in which electrical signals are transmitted through the current path formed by the dielectric breakdown.

Switch, semiconductor device, and manufacturing method thereof

An actuator using a piezoelectric element is stably operated at high speed. The actuator includes driving units provided to face a carrier stage and moving the carrier stage in an X-axis direction, piezoelectric elements provided to the driving units respectively and expanding and contracting in the X-axis direction, a carrier electrode provided on a surface of the carrier stage on a driving-unit side, and driving electrodes provided on surfaces of the driving units on a carrier stage side and electrostatically adsorbing the carrier electrode. Signals not synchronized with each other are applied to the piezoelectric elements.

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Tachikawa, Japan

Kiyoko Yamanaka