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:
May. 23, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 29, 1998
Anthony Matthews, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Guy T Varty, Woodland Hills, CA (US);
David D Lynch, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Litton Systems Inc., Woodland Hills, CA (US);
Abstract
The invention is an apparatus for sensing rotation comprising a housing, a resonator attached to the housing, a first set of electrodes consisting of one or more electrically-connected electrodes, and a second set of N electrodes. The resonator is a rotationally-symmetric, thin-walled object capable of vibrating in at least one of a plurality of standing-wave modes. The orientation of a standing wave with respect to a reference point on the resonator is specified by an orientation angle. The first set of electrodes are attached to either the resonator or the housing. The N electrodes of the second set are attached around the circumference of either (1) the housing if the first set of electrodes is attached to the resonator or (2) the resonator if the first set of electrodes is attached to the housing. The n'th electrode of the second set is attached at angular position .theta..sub.n with respect to the reference point on the resonator, opposing one or more of the second set of electrodes. The apparatus further comprises driving electronics which supplies driving signals to one or more of the second set of electrodes and sensing electronics which receives the first-set signal appearing on the first set of electrodes as a result of the capacitive coupling between the first- and second-set electrodes. The sensing electronics also supplies one or more signals to the driving electronics.