A multiple-axis gas flow type angular velocity sensor (1) which can accurately and stably detect the magnitude and direction of angular velocities acting in two or more directions is comprised of a plurality of semiconductor substrates (2-5) on which are formed thermosensitive resistor elements (H_W-R, H_W-L; H_W-U, H_W-D) and gas passage portions (7,9,11,13) by performing precision processing using a photo-engraving process from the semiconductor production field. The semiconductor substrates (2-5) are laminated together to provide a sensor having a plurality of pairs of resistor elements (H_W-R, H_W-L; H_W-U, H_W-D) in a gas passage (7,9,11,13).

A multiple-axis gas flow type angular velocity sensor (1) which can accurately and stably detect the magnitude and direction of angular velocities acting in two or more directions is comprised of a plurality of semiconductor substrates (2-5) on which are formed thermosensitive resistor elements (H_W-R, H_W-L; H_W-U, H_W-D) and gas passage portions (7,9,11,13) by performing precision processing using a photo-engraving process from the semiconductor production field. The semiconductor substrates (2-5) are laminated together to provide a sensor having a plurality of pairs of resistor elements (H_W-R, H_W-L; H_W-U, H_W-D) in a gas passage (7,9,11,13).

The specification discloses an angular velocity sensor of the type wherein a flow of gas forced by a pump into a gas path in the sensor body (9) through a nozzle hole and directed toward a pair of thermosensitive resistance elements provided in the gas path is deflected by the action of an angular velocity and the deflection of the gas flow is sensed by means of the thermosensitive resistance elements, and which is further provided with a thermostatically-controlled gas path (10) with heating means (11) for keeping the gas flow at a constant temperature with no affection of ambient temperature variations and also provided with a gas path for absorbing pulsations of the gas flow caused by pumping operations.

A sensor (10) comrpises a light source (24, 26) and a photosensor (28, 30) for receiving light (32, 34) emitted by the light source (24, 26). The sensor (10) further comprises a fluid passage way (12a) and resilient members (18, 20) at least partially immersed in a fluid (14) in the passageway (12a) for varying the amount of light (24, 26) incident on the photosensor (28, 30) from the light source (24, 26) as a predetermined function of the amount of movement of the fluid (14) and resulting deflection of the resilient member (18, 20) in the passageway (12a).

The present invention is concerned with a gyro apparatus making use of a semiconductor wherein the Coriolis force acting on the electron flow within the solid-state semiconductor device (31) is detected as a differential current for detecting the angular velocity. At least one current supply section (32) and at least two current detection sections (33, 34) spaced apart from the current supply section and from each other are provided in the semiconductor device for detecting the deviation of the current produced on application of an angular velocity as a differential current.

A gas flow type angular velocity sensor comprising two semiconductor substrates with all components formed thereon by use of a semiconductor technology and an IC technology, which are coupled with each other to form therein a pair of heat wires, a gas path and a nozzle holes for injecting a gas flow toward the paired heat wires in the gas path. Two heat wires of the pair changes their resistance-temperature characteristics in accordance with a deflection of the gas flow due to the action of angular velocity and a difference between two changed values is picked up and amplified by a resistance bridge circuit and an amplifier circuit formed on the semiconductor substrates to produce an output signal proportional to the angular velocity to be measured. A miniature pump formed on semiconductor substrates and drivable by a piezoelectric element provides a stabilized gas flow in the sensor. Thus constructed sensor is compact, accurate and suitable for mass-production and free from disadvantages of conventional sensors.

A method of manufacturing a fluidic angular rate sensor of the type that fine wires such as tungsten wires are tensely spread over the heads of two pairs of metal supports which are mounted on a ceramic disc having fluid passage apertures, includes the steps of: plating a gold on the wires and fixedly spreading the wires over the metal supports by means of thermocompression bonding or the like; and heating the wires in a predetermined atmo­sphere which allows the plated gold to be removed and the wires to be crystalized.

Disclosed is a gas rate sensor system which provides an output signal, representing an angular velocity of the gas rate sensor, when the gas flows more on one of its thermal sensing elements (14a or 14b) than on the other (14a and 14b), due to the effect of the angular velocity on the gas flow. The gas rate sensor system can carry out an arithmetic operation for correction of the gas rate sensor output signal, using and updatable offset value to account for the instantaneous temperature change in the gas rate sensor.

An angular rate sensor includes an improved impulse pump structure (70) for providing fluid under pressure to a nozzle (28) disposed at one end of a jet chamber (29) to form a constant flow fluid jet, the jet chamber (29) including a pair of temperature sensitive elements (53, 54) disposed at the other end in such a manner as to be differentially cooled by the fluid jet in dependence on the angular rotation of the sensor.

An angular velocity measuring device (1) includes a first sensor (2) (vibratory gyroscope) and a second sensor (3) (gas rate gyroscope). A detected output of the first sensor (2) is input to a highpass filter (4) and an output of this filter (4) is stored in the time series into a memory (10). Subtraction means (11) sequentially performs operations of subtracting an output (ωv'(t-tsd) of the filter (4) at a time a predetermined time period tsd earlier from an output ωv'(t) of the filter (4), and addition means (12) sequentially adds the value obtained by the above to an output ωg(t) of the second sensor (3), whereby an angular velocity measurement is obtained. Thereby, it is possible to provide an angular velocity measuring device whose angular velocity measurements are high in response and stability at a low price.