Appeal No. 96-4204
Application 08/148,307
The disclosed invention pertains to a planar
semiconductor accelerometer sensor plate. Such a sensor plate is
suspended in parallel between two capacitor plates. A force
acting on the sensor plate causes it to accelerate in a direction
towards one of the capacitor plates. The invention is
particularly directed to a technique for preventing the sensor
plate from bending when subjected to such forces. Specifically,
the planar sensor plate has a first mass bounded by a plurality
of constraint points and a second mass cantilevered from the
first mass disposed outside the constraint points.
Representative claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. A planar semiconductor accelerometer sensor plate
comprising:
a first mass of the sensor plate bounded by a plurality of
constraint points, wherein the first mass is disposed inside the
plurality of constraint points; and
a second mass of the sensor plate cantilevered from the
first mass in order to produce a counterbalancing moment on the
first mass, wherein the second mass is disposed outside the
plurality of constraint points for restoring the sensor plate to
a substantially planar condition in response to acceleration
forces.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Albert 4,656,383 Apr. 07, 1987
Wiegand et al. (Wiegand) 4,930,042 May 29, 1990
2
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