Importance

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Abstract

An accelerometer has a capacitor detect plate defined on an electrically insulating substrate adjacent a capacitor source plate connector and has circuit paths on the substrate connected to the detect plate and source plate connector. A resilient metal plate has an attachment portion secured to the source plate connector, has a capacitor source plate portion, has integral first beam elements extending away from the attachment portion and has a second beam element extending from the first beam elements back toward the attachment portion to dispose the capacitor source plate in spaced relation to the detect plate to form a capacitor having selected initial capacitance. The capacitor source plate member portion is movable relative to the detect plate to modify device capacitance in response to acceleration. Electronic components are mounted on the substrate connected to the circuit paths to provide an output signal corresponding to the acceleration. Preferably the device is mounted on a housing base with a part of the device substrate carrying the metal member extending over a housing recess to isolate that device end from thermal stresses in an accelerometer unit. Preferably the detect plate, source plate connector, resilient metal member, are provided on and soldered on a plurality of detachable sections of a ceramic insulating substrate in a batch process, and the substrate sections are then separated to form a plurality of accelerometer devices.

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First Claim