Milestone for automotive acceleration sensors
A
Bosch Automotive OE Division product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 30, 2005
Bosch has shipped more than 200 million acceleration sensors in just seven years.
Acceleration sensors, small robust devices that make possible the many and varied safety systems now fitted to the modern motor car, have passed a Bosch production milestone - 200 million in only seven years.
These small but important devices are used by many vehicle manufacturers worldwide for measuring the acceleration magnitude of a collision and combined with angular rate sensors, activate occupant restraint systems such as seatbelt tension devices, airbags and in the case of convertibles, deploying rollover bars.
The current second-generation acceleration sensors using silicon micromechanics have a range of measurement, depending on the model.
This can be between 20 and 200g (1g equals the acceleration due to gravity of 9.81m/s2).
The sensors can be used centrally in the electronic control unit, in situ in the crumple zone of the bodywork, or as side or up-front sensors.
They measure the rate at which the bodywork is deformed in a collision and send appropriate signals to the central airbag control unit.
This then decides on the activation of the restraint systems.
Bosch micromechanical acceleration sensors can measure acceleration in different directions.
Other advantages of the second-generation sensors are their greater sensitivity, a digital output, low power consumption and the significantly more compact housing.
This measures only 10 x 4 x 1.75mm and is small enough for most applications.
The sensor consists of the element and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
Both chips are housed together in a compact SOIC16 standard package.
A spring-mass system is used for measurement.
Freely moving oscillating structures are created on the surface of the silicon, using trench and sacrificial layer etching techniques.
The amount of travel on the oscillating structures is measured capacitively.
Bosch has been supplying micromachined acceleration sensors since 1998.
Initially, three standard models were available, depending on the intended use.
These could be central airbag control units, side sensors, or up-front sensors for detecting collisions.
With the introduction of the favourably priced second-generation units in the key markets of Japan, Western Europe and NAFTA, the product range was expanded again in order to meet current and future requirements in the field of passive safety systems.
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