1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a sensor device such as a gyro sensor or an acceleration sensor used for detecting angular velocity on a car navigation system or the like, and more particularly, to a stem structure of the sensor device. The present invention also relates to a manufacturing method of the sensor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, acceleration sensors and angular velocity sensors (gyro sensors) having various types of configuration have been proposed. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-58369 (hereinafter referred to as Document 1) describes an acceleration sensor shown in
The base plate 11 forms a stem of the acceleration sensor and includes a dent portion 13 and a step portion 12. The above-mentioned base plate 11 is formed with embossing press (folding press). That is to say, the dent portion 13 is formed by pressing up a plane plate, and then the step portion 12 is formed by pressing up from the opposite side of the plane plate. The cap 8 is attached to the base plate 11 by hermetically sealing a flange 9 of the cap 8 with a circumference of the base plate 11 by resistance welding, with fitting together with the step portion 12 of the base plate 11.
Document 1 discloses that the cap 8 is attached by the resistance welding; however, the detail is not described. It is known that there are various kinds of resistance welding, and for instance, projection welding is preferable in order to achieve an excellent hermetic sealing. However, the base plate 8, to which the flange 9 of the cap 8 is welded, is plane, so the projection welding cannot be employed.
The base plate 11 is formed by embossing press. This makes it impossible to obtain a sufficient height of the step portion 12 to serve as a protective barrier against welding spatters.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a sensor stem, a sensor device including the sensor stem, and a manufacturing method of the sensor device including the sensor stem. The sensor stem has a structure of an excellent hermetic sealing and has a sufficient height to serve as a protective barrier against welding spatters, and in addition, the sensor stem can be lowered.
According to an aspect of the present invention, preferably, there is provided a sensor stem supporting a sensor element comprising a metal plate having a shape defined by press, the metal plate including a dent portion formed on a first surface of the metal plate, a step portion formed on a second surface of the metal plate facing the first surface, and a projection formed on the step portion for resistance welding.
According to another aspect of the present invention, preferably, there is provided a sensor device including a sensor element, lead terminals, a cap, and a sensor stem. The sensor stem supports the sensor element and the lead terminals, and is welded together with the cap. The sensor stem may include a metal plate having a shape defined by press, the metal plate including a dent portion formed on a first surface of the metal plate, a step portion formed on a second surface of the metal plate facing the first surface, and a projection formed on the step portion for resistance welding.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, preferably, there is provided a method of manufacturing a sensor device including steps of forming a sensor stem by pressing a metal plate into a dent portion provided on a first surface, a step portion provided on a second surface facing the first surface, and a projection provided on the step portion for resistance welding at the same time, attaching a sensor element on the sensor stem, and welding a cap to the sensor stem.
In accordance with the present invention, the sensor stem includes a dent portion formed on the first surface of the metal plate. It is thus possible to prevent a short circuit between the lead soldered to the printed circuit board and the sensor stem provided on the printed circuit board caused resulting from the solder entering between a bottom face of the sensor stem and the printed circuit board. In addition, the sensor stem includes the step portion formed on the second surface facing the first surface, and the step portion serves as a barrier layer against the welding spatters. It is thus possible to keep precision apparatuses such as the sensor element clean, the precision apparatuses being mounted on the sensor stem. Further, the step portion includes the projection to improve the hermetic and stable sealing.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the following drawings, wherein:
A description will now be given, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of embodiments of the present invention.
A sensor stem 1 has a stem structure formed by pressing a soft metal plate 2 into shapes with a high pressure (high pressure pressing) in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. The metal plate 2 is nickel-plated. Referring to
Referring to
The sensor stem 1 having the above-mentioned configuration has the stem structure into which the metal plate is pressed and formed with the high-pressure press, as described. With the high-pressure press, the dent portion 24, the step portion 17, and the projection 6 can be formed in the same process.
A reference numeral 18 shown in
The dent portion 24 of the sensor stem 1 is pressed by the depth w from the original thickness of the metal plate 2, as shown in
Referring to
The sensor stem 1 in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention has the thickness t1 forming the dent portion 24 to be thinner than that of a central part of the sensor stem 10 shown in
The metal plate formed into the sensor stem 1 originally had a uniform thickness, and it is hard to form the sensor stem 1 to have different parts in thickness by low-pressure pressing. In accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, the high-pressure pressing with a certain degree of pressure is capable of having different shapes and dimensions in the thickness t1 included in the dent portion 24 and the thickness t2 of the first flange 16.
A circuit board 23 or the like (with reference to
The external wall 15 of the step portion 17 serves as the protective barrier against the welding spatters when the cap 8 is welded with the sensor stem. The external wall 15 retains a sufficient height as the protective barrier by the high-pressure press.
A second embodiment of the present invention will describe the welding method of the sensor stem 1 and the cap 8 with the projection 6.
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
The sensor device 27 includes the sensor stem 1 in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, a sensor element 22, the lead terminals 14, and the cap 8. The sensor element 22 and the lead terminals 14 are supported by the sensor stem 1. The cap 8 is welded with the sensor stem 1. The sensor element 22 is a tuning fork oscillator and is capable of detecting the angular velocity. Therefore, the sensor device in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention is an angular velocity sensor device (gyro sensor device).
Referring to
The above-mentioned sensor device 27 is manufactured as follows.
First, the sensor stem is produced in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention. That is, the dent portion 24, the step portion 17 provided on a second surface facing the first surface, and the projection 6 provided on the step portion 17 for resistance welding are formed by pressing at the same time to obtain the sensor stem 1. Next, necessary processes are performed on the sensor stem 1 such as drilling to mount the sensor element or the like on the sensor stem 1. The sensor device shown in
Here, a description will be given of how to weld the cap 8. The projection welding is conducted. The cap 8 is made of a nickel-plated steel plate. A second flange 26 is formed along the circumference on a bottom face of the cap 8, as shown in
The sensor stem 1 has the step portion 17 provided on the whole circumference of the metal plate 2, as described in the first embodiment of the present invention. The projection 6 is formed on the first flange 16 of the step portion 17. The projection 6 is used for welding the sensor stem 1 and the cap 8 by projection welding, and thus the hermetic sealing can be achieved after welding. Preferably, in order to achieve the hermetic sealing, as shown in
A description will be given of a welding procedure. First, the cap 8 is attached on the sensor stem 1 so that an inner circumference on the bottom of the cap 8 may be in close contact with the external wall 15 of the step portion 17 in the sensor stem 1. Here, referring to
Referring to
The welding is further developed, and finally, part of the iron layer 26a and the nickel-plated layer 26b provided on the bottom face of the second flange 26 in the cap 8 and part of the iron layer 16a and the nickel-plated layer 16b provided on the top face of the sensor stem 1 are melted and mixed together. Referring to
The projection 6, referring back to
The cap 8 is firmly attached to the sensor stem 1 so that the inner circumference on the bottom of the cap 8 may be in close contact with the external wall 15 of the step portion 17 in the sensor stem 1. The external wall 15 serves as the protective barrier against the welding spatters.
A sufficient height is obtained in the external wall 15 by the high-pressure pressing to serve as the protective barrier as described above. Thus, the oscillator, the circuit board, and the like mounted on a top face 1a of the sensor stem 1 are not contaminated by the welding spatters.
Thus produced sensor device 27 is mounted on the printed circuit board 18, as shown in
The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and other embodiments, variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The present invention is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-034315 filed on Feb. 10, 2004, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004-034315 | Feb 2004 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3726987 | Pryor et al. | Apr 1973 | A |
6094984 | Asano et al. | Aug 2000 | A |
6708564 | Ishikawa et al. | Mar 2004 | B2 |
6810735 | Kaneko et al. | Nov 2004 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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44 14 266 | Oct 1995 | DE |
6-58369 | Mar 1994 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050172713 A1 | Aug 2005 | US |