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US 5,537,872 AGranted
Angular rate sensor
AssigneeLucas Industries public limited company
InventorsPeter E. M. Frere, Russell W. Craddock
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An angular rate sensor comprises a wafer of silicon etched to form tines with teeth which are interdigitated. The tines are excited into oscillation in the plane of the wafer, by applying suitable drive signals to create electrostatic forces between the tines. Rotation of the tines out of the plane of the wafer is detected by a suitable detector, such as a piezo-resistor on a support of the tines.
Claims13
An angular rate sensor comprising:
- a wafer of silicon etched to define a surround, a first support extending from said surround, a first transverse member supported by said first support, and first and second substantially parallel tines having first and second sets, respectively, of teeth which are interdigitated with each other, said tines extending from and rigidly supported by said first transverse member;
- means for exciting said first and second tines into co-planar oscillation in anti-phase with each other, the oscillation being co-planar with said wafer in the absence of rotation;
- and detecting means for detecting rotation of said first and second tines out of a plane of said wafer by detecting one of relative movement and relative force between said first transverse member and said surround.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.