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:
Nov. 25, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 20, 1995
Alps Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Yoshiro Tomikawa, Yamagata, JP;
Abstract
A vibratory gyroscope including a planar elastic vibrator having vibrator piezoelectric material layers formed on both the front and back sides. The vibrator includes a base portion and three parallel elastic pieces extending from the base portion such that the a center elastic piece is located between two side elastic pieces. Electrode layers are formed over the piezoelectric material layers which cause both the side elastic pieces and the center elastic piece to vibrate in a plane, such that the vibrations of the center elastic piece are 180.degree. out-of-phase with the side elastic pieces. When the thus-vibrated vibrator is rotated, the elastic pieces are vibrated in directions parallel to the plane due to the Coriolis force. These deformations are detected as voltage changes across the piezoelectric material layers, and the voltage changes are used to determinate the angular velocity of the vibrator. The outside edges of the side elastic pieces are offset from an outer edge of the base section to prevent twisting stress, thereby allowing more precise vibration detection.