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A surface micromachined angular rate sensor utilizing a vibrating metal ring structure on a silicon IC has been developed. Substantial signal conditioning circuitry is included on the IC with the vibrating structure. Tests of the sensor demonstrate that its performance is equivalent to that required for implementation of a yaw control system. Vehicle handling and safety are substantially improved using the sensor to implement yaw control.

A single-crystal silicon capacitive acceleration sensor for low-g applications has been developed. The sensor element itself is formed entirely from single crystal silicon, giving it exceptional stability over time and temperature and excellent shock resistance. The sensor is produced using low-cost, high volume processing, test and calibration. The sensor integrated circuit (IC) contains a proofmass which moves in response to applied accelerations. The position of the proofmass is capacitively detected and processed by an interface IC. The sensor/interface IC system is packaged in a small outline IC (SOIC) package for printed circuit board mounting. The module is designed to measure full scale accelerations in the 0.75g to 3g range to suit a variety of automotive, industrial and consumer applications