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US 10,119,834 B2Granted
MEMS sensor with voltage sensing of movable mass
AssigneePanasonic Corporation
InventorsAdolfo Giambastiani, Jaakko Ruohio
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A suspended spring-mass system is suspended from a plurality of the anchoring points. A source voltage is provided from one of anchoring points to the suspended spring-mass system. The other anchoring points have measurement nodes which measure the voltage at those anchoring points. If a voltage other than the source voltage is received at one of the measurement nodes, an error is identified.
Claims19
A microelectromechanical sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of anchoring points;
- a suspended spring-mass system, comprising:
- a plurality of movable masses;
- a plurality of springs coupling the plurality of movable masses to each other and to suspend the plurality of movable masses from the plurality of anchoring points, wherein the plurality of moving masses and the plurality of anchoring points are electrically connected by the plurality of springs;
- a first voltage source coupled to apply a system voltage level to the suspended spring-mass system via a first anchoring point of the plurality of anchoring points;
- a measurement node coupled to a second anchoring point of the plurality of anchoring points to measure a voltage of the second anchoring point;
- and
- processing circuitry configured to identify an error of the suspended spring-mass system based on the measured voltage.
5 more elements
A method for identifying an error within a microelectromechanical sensor, the method comprising:
- providing, from a first voltage source, a system voltage to a first anchoring point of a plurality of anchoring points;
- applying, via the first anchoring point, a system voltage level to a suspended spring-mass system;
- receiving, at a second anchoring point of the plurality of anchoring points, a received voltage via the suspended spring-mass system;
- providing the received voltage from the second anchoring point to a measurement node;
- and
- identifying, by processing circuitry, an error of the suspended spring-mass system based on the received voltage at the measurement node.
3 more elements
A microelectromechanical sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of anchoring points;
- a plurality of source/sense circuits, wherein each of the source sense circuits is coupled to one of the plurality of anchoring points, each source/sense circuit comprising:
- a voltage source;
- a measurement node;
- and
- a switch;
- a suspended spring-mass system suspended from the plurality of anchoring points;
- and
- processing circuitry configured to cause a first source/sense circuit to couple the voltage source of the first source/sense circuit to a first anchoring point of the plurality of anchoring points, to cause a second source/sense circuit couple a second anchoring point of the plurality of anchoring points to the measurement node of the second source/sense circuit, and to identify an error of the suspended spring-mass system based on a voltage received at the second measurement node.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.