ANGULAR VELOCITY SENSOR, METHOD FOR DETECTING SIGNAL FROM THE SENSOR, AND PRODUCTION OF THE SENSOR

PURPOSE:To mass-produce a miniature, highly precise and inexpensive sensor by using a tuning fork type quartz oscillator for performing curvature oscillation in a plane perpendicular to an angular velocity vector at right angles. CONSTITUTION:The outer shape of a tuning fork quartz oscillator 12 is made by etching by means of photolithograph technology, has a specific cutting angle at which a pure vertical wave produces and width and thickness of a tuning fork arm becomes approximately same size. In addition, because displacement of curvature oscillation excited by Corioli's force is made large, a resonance angle frequency agrees with original resonance angle frequency and sensitivity is improved. Electrodes (adhesion fixing parts 15, 16) for exciting the tuning fork curvature oscillation are common to other electrodes for detecting an angular velocity signal. Thereby a piezoelectric oscillation plate for causing the tuning fork need not be stuck on the tuning fork, manufacture is easy, the piezoelectric oscillation plate is strong in shock from the outside, unstability and variation of the characteristics are eliminated and the device can be miniaturized.