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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8176780 | Angular velocity sensor An angular velocity sensor includes a supporting substrate, a detecting portion, a displacement detecting portion, a first driving portion, and a second driving portion. The detecting portion is supported by the supporting substrate movably in at least a free direct... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8166817 | Angle-measuring method and angle-measuring gyroscope system for implementing the same An angle-measuring method includes: configuring a state observer to calculate a set of estimated signals based on a set of previously calculated estimated parameters; configuring the state observer to calculate a gain thereof using a dynamic equation associated with... | 05/01/2012 |
| 7886598 | Vibratory gyro bias error cancellation using mode reversal The method and apparatus in one embodiment may have: providing a two-dimensional axisymmetric oscillator having a beam containing two principal elastic axes and two principal damping axes; driving the beam with drive components to oscillate across corners of the bea... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7770451 | Angular velocity detecting device A high-performance angular rate detecting device is provided. A driving part including a drive frame and a Coriolis frame is levitated by at least two fixing beams which share a fixed end and are extending in a direction orthogonal to a driving direction, thereby vi... | 08/10/2010 |
| 7677100 | Composite sensor and acceleration sensor In an acceleration sensor, a first vibrator is arranged on a surface of a substrate such that the vibrator can vibrate in an X-axis direction. An angular-velocity-detecting vibrator is arranged inside the first vibrator such that the vibrator can be displaced in a Y... | 03/16/2010 |
| 7637158 | Excitation in micromechanical devices A resonant structure for a micromechanical device includes a crystalline silicon beam and at least one mass attached to the beam. An excitation plane of the resonant structure is defined by the predominant motion of the excited resonant structure. The beam includes ... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7478557 | Common centroid micromachine driver A drive arrangement for a micromachine includes a plurality of fixed electrodes arranged so as to have a common centroid. ... | 01/20/2009 |
| 7421898 | Torsional nonresonant z-axis micromachined gyroscope with non-resonant actuation to measure the angular rotation of an object A gimbal-type torsional z-axis micromachined gyroscope with a non-resonant actuation scheme measures angular rate of an object with respect to the axis normal to the substrate plane (the z-axis). A 2 degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) drive-mode oscillator is comprised of a... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7421897 | Cross-quad and vertically coupled inertial sensors An inertial sensor includes a cross-quad configuration of four interconnected sensor elements. Each sensor element has a frame and a resonator suspended within the frame. The sensor elements are arranged so that the frames of adjacent sensor elements are allowed to ... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7401397 | Method of producing an inertial sensor The present invention discloses an inertial sensor comprising a planar mechanical resonator with embedded sensing and actuation for substantially in-plane vibration and having a central rigid support for the resonator. At least one excitation or torquer electrode is... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7394326 | Quartz oscillator manufacturing method and quartz oscillator A method for manufacturing a quartz oscillator having a stable temperature drift characteristic attributed to the quartz oscillating piece and a quartz oscillator are disclosed. The method comprises a quartz crystal etching step S1 of processing a quar... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7392702 | Method for modifying the location of nodal points of a vibrating beam The apparatus in one embodiment may have: a beam having at least first and second mounting points that are operatively coupled to the beam by first and second flexures, respectivly; the beam having first and second nodal points; the beam having a center area; and an... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7389690 | Micro-gyrometer with frequency detection This invention suggests a micro-gyrometer, advantageously machined using conventional micro-electronic techniques, based on the detection of Coriolis forces generated by an angular movement Ω perpendicular to the direction of vibration of the masses free to move al... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7383729 | Tuning fork gyro with sense plate read-out A micro-electromechanical (MEM) device includes a proof mass resiliently mounted to a substrate. The proof mass has first and second combs formed on opposite sides thereof and is electrically coupled to ground. A fixed drive comb is interleaved with the first comb o... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7377167 | Nonresonant micromachined gyroscopes with structural mode-decoupling A four-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) nonresonant micromachined gyroscope utilizes a dynamical amplification both in the drive-direction oscillator and the sense-direction oscillator, which are structurally decoupled, to achieve large oscillation amplitudes without resona... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7370531 | Detection circuits, detection method and systems of measuring physical quantities A detection circuit 30 has a unit 30a for inputting a signal to be detected by synchronized wave detection, a unit 30b for inputting a standard signal for the signal to be detected and a unit 30c for inputting an offs... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7357025 | Micromachined apparatus with co-linear drive arrays A mass includes a first set of drive fingers interdigitated with a first array of fixed drive fingers and a second set of drive fingers interdigitated with a second array of fixed drive fingers. Each array of fixed drive fingers is affixed to a substrate using a plu... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7355318 | Micromachined device utilizing electrostatic comb drives to filter mechanical vibrations A micromachined device for filtering mechanical vibrations caused by an external disturbance is disclosed. The device can include a first electrostatic vertical comb drive assembly having a first array of stationary elements and a second array of movable elements co... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7350415 | Closed-loop comb drive sensor A closed-loop, comb drive device that reduces certain “common mode” sensor errors. The device includes a comb structure, electronics, a substrate, and a position sensor. The comb structure includes two comb-drive sections, each having at least two subsections. T... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7347094 | Coupling apparatus for inertial sensors A coupling apparatus allows anti-phase movements of inertial sensor element frames along parallel axes but substantially prevents in-phase movements of the frames. The coupling apparatus includes a bar coupled between first and second sensor element frames and at le... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7340954 | Method for measurement of rotation rates/accelerations using a rotation rate coriolis gyro, as well as a coriolis gyro which is suitable for this purpose A Coriolis gyro includes a first and a second resonator, each in the form of a coupled system comprising first and second linear oscillators. The first resonator can be caused to oscillate in antiphase with respect to the second resonator along a common oscillation ... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7340956 | Built-in self test of MEMS The present disclosure is directed to an apparatus and method for producing and comparing signals from various points in a MEMS device. By producing signals which should be of substantial identical characteristics, deviations from the situation where the signals are... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7322238 | Support of vibrating beam near nodal point An apparatus in one example comprises a vibrating beam that comprises a nodal point for oscillation in any one or more of a plurality of substantially perpendicular directions for driving into oscillation and sensing angular rate of the vibrating beam. The vibrating... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7318348 | Angular rate sensor and mounting structure of angular rate sensor An angular rate sensor includes: a substrate; a drive-purpose vibrator capable of vibrating in a first direction; and an angular velocity detection-purpose vibrator capable of vibrating in a second direction. The sensor detects an angular velocity on the basis of vi... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7302847 | Physical quantity sensor having movable portion An angular rate sensor includes: a support substrate; a semiconductor layer; and a movable portion. The movable portion includes a driving vibration portion and a detecting vibration portion. The driving vibration portion is capable of vibrating in a first direction... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7302848 | Force compensated comb drive A force compensated comb drive for a microelectromechanical system includes a MEMS mechanism for providing an output signal representative of a physical quantity; a comb drive for actuating the MEMS mechanism; a comb drive circuit for providing a drive signal to the... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7296467 | Angular velocity sensor An angular velocity sensor 1 includes support members 10A1, 10A2, 10B1 and 10B2, bonded to two nodal points of a pillar-shaped oscillator, generated on oscillations of the oscillator, in ... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7287428 | Inertial sensor with a linear array of sensor elements An inertial sensor includes at least one pair of sensor elements arranged in a linear array. Each sensor element has a frame and a movable mass suspended within the frame. The frames of each pair of sensor elements may be coupled so that the frames are allowed to mo... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7284429 | Micromachined double tuning-fork gyrometer with detection in the plane of the machined wafer The invention relates to a gyrometer based on a vibrating structure, produced by micromachining in a thin planar wafer. It comprises four moving assemblies placed at the vertices of a virtual rectangle, each moving assembly being coupled to two moving assemblies loc... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7284431 | Geophone An improved system for sensing ground motion is provided. The system generally comprises a shell and a case within the shell and connected by a suspension. The mass of the case is greater than the mass of the shell. An electrode within the shell detects relative mot... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7284430 | Robust micromachined gyroscopes with two degrees of freedom sense-mode oscillator A three-degrees of freedom (DOF) MEMS inertial micromachined gyroscope with nonresonant actuation with a drive direction, sense direction and a direction perpendicular to the drive and sense directions comprises a planar substrate, a 2-DOF sense-mode oscillator coup... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7276834 | Electrostatically oscillated device An oscillator is oscillatable in a predetermined direction. First and second driving electrodes are secured to the base and apply an electrostatic force to the oscillator to make drive oscillation of the oscillator in the predetermined direction. At the time of the ... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7275435 | Capacitance type semiconductor dynamic quantity sensor A capacitance type semiconductor dynamic quantity sensor includes a beam-shaped movable electrode displaceable in a predetermined direction in response to application of a dynamic quantity to a support substrate, and beam-shaped fixed electrodes which are fixedly su... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7275452 | Stop assembly for a beam type load cell A beam load cell transducer is positioned between a stationary member and moveable member. The stationary member, as well as the moveable member are surrounded by a collar, which collar has an inner surface means to limit the movement of the moveable member of the t... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7274002 | Heating element induction of time-varying thermal gradient in elongated beam to cause one or more elongated beam oscillations One or more heating elements comprise a heating element. One or more elongated beams comprise an elongated beam. The heating element is coupled with the elongated beam and induces a time-varying thermal gradient in the elongated beam to cause one or more oscillation... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7270003 | BMEMS-type high-sensitivity inertial sensor and manufacturing process thereof The semiconductor inertial sensor is formed by a rotor element and a stator element electrostatically coupled together. The rotor element is formed by a suspended mass and by a plurality of mobile electrodes extending from the suspended mass. The stator element is f... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7267005 | SOI-MEMS gyroscope having three-fold symmetry A SOI-MEMS gyroscope has a three fold symmetrical construction such that is symmetrical in the x direction, the y direction and diagonally. The gyroscope is suspended above a silicon substrate by lateral flexures that are located at the corners of the proof mass and... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7267004 | Inertial micromechanical tuning-fork gyrometer The invention relates to a micromachined gyrometer having a planar moving structure anchored on a fixed substrate by anchoring feet, the fixed substrate being mounted on a support substrate via fasteners, the moving structure comprising at least two moving assemblie... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7268646 | Temperature controlled MEMS resonator and method for controlling resonator frequency There are many inventions described and illustrated herein. In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a temperature compensated microelectromechanical resonator as well as fabricating, manufacturing, providing and/or controlling microelectromechanical reso... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7258010 | MEMS device with thinned comb fingers Methods of fabricating thinned comb MEMS devices are disclosed. A comb drive device in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention can include a number of interdigitated comb fingers some of which have a reduced thickness along at least a por... | 08/21/2007 |
