Acceleration sensor having coaxially-arranged fixed electrode and

Abstract

An acceleration sensor is constructed by a substrate, a cylindrical dead-weight movable electrode to be displaced by acceleration, a fixed electrode from the inside of which a cylinder is hollowed, a cylindrical anchor arranged on the substrate for supporting the dead-weight movable electrode with elastic transformable structural material and beams. When acceleration is applied from the outside, the cylindrical detecting face of the dead-weight movable electrode and the cylindrical detected face of the fixed electrode are in contact on a two-dimensional plane parallel to the substrate and the acceleration sensor detects the contact. A radial interval between the detecting face of the dead-weight movable electrode and the detected face of the fixed electrode is set in view of the elastic modulus of the beams so that external force can be detected isotropically and the acceleration sensor detects acceleration on a two-dimensional plane nondirectionally.