The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 08, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 05, 1995
Paul Greiff, Wayland, MA (US);
Jerome B Sohn, Sudbury, MA (US);
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
An electrostatically actuated micromechanical sensor having a guard band electrode for reducing the effect of transients associated with a dielectric substrate of the sensor. A proof mass, responsive to an input, is suspended over the substrate and one or more electrodes are disposed on the substrate in electrostatic communication with the proof mass to sense the input acceleration and/or to torque the proof mass back to a null position. A guard band electrode is disposed over the dielectric substrate in overlapping relationship with the electrodes and maintains the surface of the substrate at a reference potential, thereby shielding the proof mass from transients and enhancing the accuracy of the sensor. A dissolved wafer process for fabricating the micromechanical sensor is described in which the proof mass is defined by a boron doping step. An alternative fabrication technique is also described in which the proof mass is defined by an epitaxial layer.