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:
Oct. 20, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1996
David L Corkum, Attleboro, MA (US);
June Park, Providence, RI (US);
Keith W Kawate, Attleboro Falls, MA (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A first embodiment of a condition responsive capacitive transducer, such as an accelerometer (1), is shown in which an electrically conductive sensor element (14) is sandwiched between upper (10) and lower (12) electrically insulative planar substrates and mounted in sealed, spaced apart relation by patterns (16) of adhesive containing spacing elements. A second embodiment (100) includes a signal conditioning capacitor having plate portions (114r, 120b and 114s, 120c) on either side of a condition responsive capacitor to minimize errors caused by translational movement of the sensor element (114) relative to the substrates (110, 112). Circuit conditioning electronics (124) is shown mounted directly on one of the substrates (110) and the sensor is mountable directly on a circuit board. A third embodiment (200) shows differential capacitors (224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234) for minimizing errors due to misalignment of the movable element (114) with respect to the fixed supports (210, 212). Another embodiment provides a material system for use in condition responsive capacitive transducers having refractory metal for a sensing element and glass material for a supporting substrate.