Acceleration sensor
AssigneesMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Company Limited
InventorsTeruaki Nagahara, Yoshikazu Kaido
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Abstract
An acceleration sensor which can improve precision during self-diagnosis operation. The acceleration sensor includes an amplifier circuit which amplifies a detection signal obtained by converting changes in capacitance between a movable electrode and a self-diagnosis electrode into an electric signal to output the amplified signal as a self-diagnosis signal. The amplifier factor of the amplifier circuit during self-diagnosis operation is controlled to be greater than the factor during non-self-diagnosis operation.
Claims3
An acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration based on changes in capacitance between a movable electrode and fixed electrodes provided on a semiconductor sensor chip, the acceleration sensor comprising:
- a self-diagnosis electrode provided on the semiconductor chip;
- an amplifier configured to amplify a detection signal obtained by converting changes in capacitance between the self-diagnosis electrode and the movable electrode into an electric signal, the signal amplified by the amplifier being output as a self-diagnosis signal;
- and
- a device configured to increase the amplification factor of the amplifier during self-diagnosis operation to a value greater than an amplification factor during non-self-diagnosis operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.