Micromechanical rate of rotation sensor (DRS)

US6474162B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• EADS Deutschland GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Ralf Voss · Starnberg, DE
• Karin Bauer · Oberhaching, DE
• Matthias Rose · Eindhoven, NL
• Erwin Stenzel · Deisenhofen, DE
• Josef Schalk · Riedlingen, DE
• Winfried Kupke · Ottobrunn, DE
• Helmut Seidel · Starnberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 9, 1998
• Grant date: Nov 5, 2002
• Expiry date: Oct 20, 2020

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01C19/5621
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A rate of rotation sensor is suggested which is structured out of silicon (silicon compounds or silicon/glass compounds) or other semiconductor materials by means of micromechanical techniques. The rate of rotation sensor has the form of a tuning fork whose prongs are situated in planes in parallel to the surface of the semiconductor wafer. These prongs are exited to carry out vibrations in a plane perpendicular to the wafer plane. By means of a sensor element which registers the torsion of the tuning fork suspension, the angular velocity of a rotation of the sensor about an axis in parallel to the tuning fork suspension is measured.