Capacitive physical quantity sensor

• US 7,640,806 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Hayakawa, Junji, Umemura, Akinobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Hezron
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shah, Samir M
• Application Number:
  US11/642,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20070159183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 735/143.2, 73/381, 737/14, 735/141.9, 324/661, 324/679, 324/606, 361/281, 280/735
• US Class Current: 73/514.32
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/24 by varying capacitance
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/2417 by varying separation
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/125 by capacitive pick-up
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/2605 Measuring capacitance capacitive sensors G01D5/24

Abstract

A capacitive physical quantity sensor includes a sensor element and a detecting element. The sensor element includes first and second fixed electrodes facing a movable electrode. A first voltage is applied to the first fixed electrode and a second voltage is applied to the second fixed electrode. The detecting circuit includes a capacitance-voltage conversion circuit, in which an operational amplifier, a capacitor and a switch including a P-channel MOS transistor and a N-channel MOS transistor are disposed. The transistors have a back gate potential, which is approximately equal to an average voltage of the first voltage and the second voltage.

Claims

1. A capacitive physical quantity sensor comprising:

a sensor element including a movable electrode displaceable in accordance with a variation of a physical quantity, and first and second fixed electrodes facing the movable electrode, wherein a first periodic carrier wave voltage is applied to the first fixed electrode and a second periodic carrier wave voltage is applied to the second fixed electrode, the first and second periodic carrier wave voltages are inverse to each other; and

a detecting circuit including a capacitance-voltage conversion circuit, into which an input potential corresponding to a variation of a capacitance between the movable electrode and the first and second fixed electrodes is input, and from which a voltage signal corresponding to the variation of the capacitance is output, wherein

the detecting circuit further includes a sample-hold circuit for sampling and holding the voltage signal,

the sample-hold circuit includes a switch for switching the sampling and the holding,

the switch includes a P-channel MOS transistor and a N-channel MOS transistor, which are connected in parallel to each other, and

the P-channel MOS transistor and the N-channel MOS transistor have a back gate potential, which is approximately equal to an average voltage of the first periodic carrier wave voltage and the second periodic carrier wave voltage.

2. The capacitive physical quantity sensor according to claim 1, wherein:

the detecting circuit further includes a LPF circuit for filtering a frequency band in a predetermined range from the voltage signal of the capacitance-voltage conversion circuit,

the LPF circuit includes a switch,

the switch includes a P-channel MOS transistor and a N-channel MOS transistor, which are connected in parallel to each other, and

the P-channel MOS transistor and the N-channel MOS transistor have a back gate potential, which is approximately equal to the average voltage.

3. The capacitive physical quantity sensor according to claim 1, wherein:

the physical quantity is an acceleration.

4. The capacitive physical quantity sensor according to claim 1, wherein:

the first and second periodic carrier wave voltages have rectangular-wave shapes, and vary between 0V and a predetermined voltage.

5. The capacitive physical quantity sensor according to claim 4, wherein:

the second periodic carrier wave voltage is set to 0V, when the first periodic carrier wave voltage is set to the predetermined voltage; and

the second periodic carrier wave voltage is set to the predetermined voltage, when the first periodic carrier wave voltage is set to 0V.

6. The capacitive physical quantity sensor according to claim 1, wherein:

the back gate potential is constant to be the average voltage.