Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Toshiyuki Nozoe

Takeshi Uemura

Masami Tamura

Satoshi Ohuchi

Hiroyuki Aizawa

Shusaku Kawasaki

Hideo Ohkoshi

Toshiya Nakagaki

Takahiro Manabe

Satoshi Ouchi

Keisuke Kuroda

Koji Nomura

Shigehiro Yoshiuchi

Hirofumi Tajika

Isao Hattori

Masakazu Hatanaka

Hideo Okoshi

Tomomasa Omawari

Sigehiro Yosiuti

Noriyuki Jitousho

A steering-wheel grip sensor includes: a driven electrode having a planar shape and extending along a rim of a steering wheel; a sensor electrode having a planar shape and opposed to the driven electrode; a sine-wave generator that supplies a sinusoidal voltage to the driven electrode; a charge amplifier that includes a feedback capacitive element, detects a change in an amount of charge generated according to capacitance of the sensor electrode, and outputs the change in the amount of charge as a change in a voltage; a multiplication processor that multiplies the sinusoidal voltage by an output voltage from the charge amplifier; an integrator that smooths, by integration, a result of multiplication by the multiplication processor; and a grip determiner that determines whether the steering wheel is gripped, according to a level of the result smoothed.

Steering-wheel grip sensor and grip detection method

An electronic device includes a case, an angular velocity sensor fixed to the case, a data memory storing plural reference profiles, an output unit operating in a plurality of operation modes corresponding to the reference profiles, and a processor controlling the output unit. The angular velocity sensor sends a signal according to an angular velocity applied to the case. The processor is operable to receive the signal sent from the angular velocity sensor, to select a reference profile out of the plural reference profiles according to the received signal, and to cause the output unit to operate in an operation mode out of the plural operation modes corresponding to the selected reference profile. A user can operate this electronic device with a quick response.

Electronic device

An acceleration sensor includes first and second opposed electrode units. The first opposed electrode unit includes a first electrode and a second electrode spaced away from and facing the first electrode, and provides a first capacitance. The second opposed electrode unit includes a third electrode and a fourth electrode spaced away from and facing the third electrode, and provides a second capacitance. The first and third electrodes are arranged along a first direction. A component of acceleration along the first direction applied to the object is detected based on the first and second capacitances. A control voltage is applied to the first and second opposed electrode units. The control voltage is changed when both of the first capacitance and the second capacitance simultaneously increase or decrease. This acceleration sensor detects the acceleration accurately.

Acceleration sensor

An acceleration sensor includes a driver circuit for outputting a biased alternating-current (AC) voltage having a variable bias voltage, a detector element having a capacitance provided between a fixed electrode and a movable electrode changing depending on acceleration applied to the detector element, a current-voltage (C/V) converter for converting a current output from the movable electrode of the detector element into a voltage and outputting the voltage, a first operational amplifier outputting a voltage depending on the input voltage, a synchronous demodulator for synchronously detecting the voltage output from the first operational amplifier, and a defect detector for outputting a defect detection signal when the defect detector determines that the voltage output from the first operational amplifier is out of a predetermined range while the biased AC voltage output from the driver circuit is a predetermined voltage. This acceleration sensor can have a small size.

A sensor includes detecting element () with an acceleration sensor, which is formed of weight () coupled to rigid section () via flexible section (), substrate () confronting weight (), and an electrode section including opposed electrodes () placed on respective opposed faces of weight () and substrate (). This structure prevents weight () from moving along Z-axis, so that a detection accuracy of acceleration occurring along X-axis or Y-axis can be improved.

Sensor

A piezoelectric device according to the present invention includes lead wires () each having one end electrically connected to a circuit pattern, and a piezoelectric oscillator () having terminals () electrically connected to the other ends of the lead wires (), wherein the piezoelectric oscillator () is retained in suspension by the other ends of the lead wires (), and a support member () is provided on surfaces () opposite to connecting surfaces () of the lead wires () connected to the piezoelectric oscillator () at the other ends thereof.

Piezoelectric device, electronic device using the same, and automobile

A piezoelectric device according to the present invention includes lead wires () each having one end electrically connected to a circuit pattern, and a piezoelectric oscillator () made of quartz and having terminals () electrically connected to the other ends of the lead wires (), wherein the terminals () of the piezoelectric oscillator () and the lead wires () are respectively capacitively coupled with each other via an insulation layer (). According to the structure, the piezoelectric device can reduce its vertical height.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic compensation sensor that can eliminate an exclusive input terminal for the compensation mode signal. To achieve this object, the present invention comprises a sensor body (), a signal output terminal () for outputting signals from the sensor body (), and a controller for compensating the output signal from this signal output terminal ().

Sensor provided with adjusting function

An angular velocity sensor is provided, which is capable of accurate failure diagnosis on a detecting portion despite of its simple configuration and small size without providing additional means on an oscillator separately from the driving portion and a detecting portion. When a check signal for carrying out failure diagnosis is input to terminal () from outside, the degree of amplification at amplifier () is decreased, and the degree of amplification at amplifier () is simultaneously increased by an operation of AGC circuit (). As a result, a driving signal having the decreased amplitude can be obtained at terminals () and (), and a driving signal having the increased amplitude can be obtained at terminals () and (). The driving signals are supplied to one driving electrode and another driving electrode, respectively, of a pair of driving electrodes spaced from each other across the center of the arm of a tuning fork type oscillator through terminals () to ().

Angular velocity sensor

An angular velocity sensor is provided with an oscillator including a pair of drive arms, a base portion coupled to one end of each drive arm, and a flexible arm extending from the base portion in a direction opposite from the drive arms. This angular velocity sensor is also provided with a driving member which oscillates the pair of drive arms in an approaching or separating direction, and a distortion detecting member which detects a distortion of the flexible arm in the oscillating direction of the drive arms.

An inertial sensor is provided which includes a self-diagnosis circuit which applies an AC-bias signal voltage ahead of a synchronous demodulator, and thereby, supplies a diagnostic signal for detecting an abnormality in at least one of a detecting element and a detection circuit. This inertial sensor is capable of actively diagnosing whether or not there is an abnormality in the sensor itself, only by monitoring whether a predetermined DC offset signal is obtained from a sensor output terminal of the inertial sensor.

Inertial sensor and combined sensor therewith

Provided are an angular velocity sensor with improved reliability by preventing an electric short circuit resulting from etching debris left on the bottom electrode after the etching of the conductive layers, and a method for manufacturing the angular velocity sensor. The drive electrode unit, the monitor electrode unit and the sensing electrode unit are each provided with bottom electrode () formed on substrate () having the shape of a tuning fork, piezoelectric film () made of piezoelectric material and formed on bottom electrode (), and top electrode () formed on piezoelectric film (). Ends (T) of top electrode () are located inside ends (T) of piezoelectric film () so as to expose ends (T) of piezoelectric film () beyond top electrode (), thereby forming exposed parts (). When exposed parts () have a thickness of 't', piezoelectric film () is made to have an exposed width (L) of not less than 0.3 t.

Angular speed sensor and method for fabricating the same

An angular velocity sensor of the present invention includes a driving part for stably vibrating a driving part of a sensor element and a detector part for detecting an angular velocity of the sensor element and obtains a self diagnosis signal for a malfunction by detecting a mechanical coupling signal obtained at the detection part.

A thin film micromechanical resonator (resonator) having improved drive efficiency, a resonator gyro having improved sensitivity in detecting an angular velocity, and a navigation system and an automobile using the resonator gyro. The resonator includes a tuning fork structure made of a non-piezoelectric material, and a first electrode and a second electrode disposed respectively at the inner side and the outer side of the tuning fork arm. On the first and second electrodes, a first piezo film and a second piezo film are provided respectively, and a third electrode and a fourth are respectively provided electrode thereon. When an alternating voltage is applied to the third and fourth electrodes at the opposite phases each other, the tuning fork resonates in the direction perpendicular to the center line. The resonator gyro detects, at the sensing section which is formed of another electrodes and another piezo film, the Coriolis force generated in proportion to angular velocity given to the resonator.

Thin-film micromechanical resonator, thin-film micromechanical resonator gyro, and navigation system and automobile using the resonator gyro

The present invention aims to present an angular velocity sensor having a self diagnosis function. An angular velocity sensor of the present invention includes a driving part for stably vibrating a driving part of a sensor element having a driver part and a detector part for detecting an angular velocity and detection means for detecting the angular velocity of the sensor element and obtains a self diagnosis signal for a malfunction by detecting a mechanical coupling signal obtained at the detection means.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Toshiyuki Nozoe