PHYSICAL QUANTITY SENSOR SYSTEM AND PHYSICAL QUANTITY SENSOR DEVICE

• US 20110179868A1
• Filed: 04/13/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: KAINO, Yoichi, Inukai, Fumihito, Taniguchi, Motonori
• Application Number:
  US13/085,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20110179868A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/504.12
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 19/5607 using vibrating tuning forks double-ended tuning forks using planar vibrating masses suspended at opposite ends G01C19/5719
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 19/5614 Signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 19/5776 Signal processing not specific to any of the devices covered by groups G01C19/5607 - G01C19/5719
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 1/64 with intermediate conversion to phase of sinusoidal or similar periodical signals

Abstract

A physical quantity sensor system drives a physical quantity sensor and detects a physical quantity signal from a sensor signal. An analog-to-digital conversion circuit respectively converts a monitor signal and the sensor signal to a digital monitor signal and a digital sensor signal. A drive control circuit controls a drive signal according to the digital monitor signal. A phase adjustment circuit adjusts the phase difference between the digital monitor signal and the digital sensor signal. A detection circuit detects the physical quantity signal by multiplying the digital monitor signal by the digital sensor signal after the phase difference adjustment by the phase adjustment circuit.

Claims

1. A physical quantity sensor system configured to drive a physical quantity sensor that vibrates from self-excitation by application of a drive signal to output a monitor signal responsive to the self-excited vibration and also output a sensor signal according to a physical quantity given externally, and detect a physical quantity signal corresponding to the physical quantity from the sensor signal, the system comprising:

an analog-to-digital conversion circuit configured to convert the monitor signal and the sensor signal to a digital monitor signal and a digital sensor signal, respectively;

a drive control circuit configured to control the drive signal according to the digital monitor signal;

a phase adjustment circuit configured to adjust the phase difference between the digital monitor signal and the digital sensor signal so that the phases of the digital monitor signal and the digital sensor signal match with each other; and

a detection circuit configured to detect the physical quantity signal by multiplying the digital monitor signal by the digital sensor signal after the phase difference adjustment by the phase adjustment circuit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein

the analog-to-digital conversion circuit operates in synchronization with a sampling clock generated using the monitor signal as frequency reference.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein

the frequency of the sampling clock is four times or more the frequency of the monitor signal.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein

the analog-to-digital conversion circuit selectively performs first analog-to-digital conversion processing of converting the monitor signal to the digital monitor signal and second analog-to-digital conversion processing of converting the sensor signal to the digital sensor signal.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein

the analog-to-digital conversion circuit includes

a first analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the monitor signal to the digital monitor signal, and

a second analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the sensor signal to the digital sensor signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein

the drive control circuit includes

an amplitude detection circuit configured to detect an amplitude value of the digital monitor signal,

a gain adjustment circuit configured to amplify or attenuate the digital monitor signal according to the amplitude value detected by the amplitude detection circuit, and

a digital-to-analog conversion circuit configured to convert the digital monitor signal amplified or attenuated by the gain adjustment circuit to the drive signal.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein

the drive control circuit includes

an amplitude detection circuit configured to detect an amplitude value of the digital monitor signal, and

a pulse modulation circuit configured to adjust one of the amplitude and pulse width of a pulse signal synchronizing with the monitor signal according to the amplitude value detected by the amplitude detection circuit and output the result as the drive signal.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein

the drive control circuit includes

an amplitude detection circuit configured to detect an amplitude value of the digital monitor signal, and

a Δ

Σ

modulation circuit having an input gain variable according to the amplitude value detected by the amplitude detection circuit, configured to perform Δ

Σ

-modulation on the monitor signal and output the result as the drive signal.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein

the phase adjustment circuit includes a shift register configured to delay the digital monitor signal.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein

the shift register shifts the digital monitor signal sequentially to generate a plurality of delayed digital monitor signals different in phase from each other, and

the phase adjustment circuit includes a selector configured to select one of the plurality of delayed digital monitor signals and supply the selected one to the detection circuit.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein

the phase adjustment circuit includes a Hilbert transformer configured to perform Hilbert-transformation on the digital monitor signal to generate a first digital signal that lags behind the digital monitor signal in phase and a second digital signal that leads the digital monitor signal in phase,

the drive control circuit controls the drive signal according to the first digital signal, and

the detection circuit multiplies the digital sensor signal by the second digital signal.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein

the Hilbert transformer includes

a plurality of delay circuits configured to shift the digital monitor signal sequentially to generate a plurality of delayed digital monitor signals different in phase from each other,

a plurality of multipliers configured to multiply the plurality of delayed digital monitor signals by a constant, and

an addition circuit configured to output the total of outputs of the plurality multipliers as the second digital signal, and

the phase adjustment circuit includes a selector configured to select one of the plurality of delayed digital monitor signals and output the selected one as the first digital signal.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein

the phase adjustment circuit includes a shift register configured to delay the digital sensor signal.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein

the shift register shifts the digital sensor signal sequentially to generate a plurality of delayed digital sensor signals different in phase from each other, and

the phase adjustment circuit includes a selector configured to select one of the plurality of delayed digital sensor signals and supply the selected one to the detection circuit.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein

the phase adjustment circuit includes

first shift register configured to delay the digital monitor signal, and

a second shift register configured to delay the digital sensor signal, and

the first and second shift registers respectively operate in synchronization with first and second control clocks having different frequencies.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a sampling phase adjustment circuit configured to adjust the phase of a sampling clock,

wherein

the analog-to-digital conversion circuit operates in synchronization with the sampling clock phase-adjusted by the sampling phase adjustment circuit.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a startup control circuit configured to start up the drive control circuit and also start up the detection circuit when the self-excited vibration of the physical quantity sensor becomes stable.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

an amplifier configured to amplify the monitor signal;

a feedback switch configured to be switchable between a feedback state of allowing feedback of an output of the amplifier as the drive signal and a shutoff state of prohibiting feedback of the output of the amplifier as the drive signal; and

a clock generation circuit configured to generate a sampling clock based on the output of the amplifier,

wherein

the analog-to-digital conversion circuit operates in synchronization with the sampling clock, and

the startup control circuit starts up the clock generation circuit and also sets the feedback switch to the feedback state, and, when the sampling clock becomes stable, starts up the drive control circuit and also sets the feedback switch to the shutoff state.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein

the clock generation circuit includes a phase locked loop (PLL) configured to be switchable between a closed loop state and an open loop state, and

the startup control circuit starts up the PLL in the open loop state, and sets the PLL to the closed loop state when the startup of the PLL is completed.

20. A physical quantity sensor device comprising:

a physical quantity sensor configured to vibrate from self-excitation by application of a drive signal to output a monitor signal responsive to the self-excited vibration and also output a sensor signal according to a physical quantity given externally; and

the physical quantity sensor system of claim 1.