A thermal stabilization system stabilizes inertial measurement unit (IMU) performance by reducing or slowing operating variations over time of the internal temperature. More specifically, a thermoelectric heating/cooling device operates according to the Peltier effect, and uses thermal insulation and a mechanical assembly to thermally and mechanically couple the IMU to the thermoelectric device. The thermal stabilization system may minimize stress on the IMU and use a control system to stabilize internal IMU temperatures by judiciously and bidirectionally powering the thermoelectric heating/cooling device. The thermal stabilization system also may use compensation algorithms to reduce or counter residual IMU output errors from a variety of causes such as thermal gradients and imperfect colocation of the IMU temperature sensor with inertial sensors.

Reducing a sensitivity of an electromechanical sensor is presented herein. The electromechanical sensor comprises a sensitivity with respect to a variation of a mechanical-to-electrical gain of a sense element of the electromechanical sensor; and a voltage-to-voltage converter component that minimizes the sensitivity by coupling, via a defined feedback capacitance, a positive feedback voltage to a sense electrode of the sense element—the sense element electrically coupled to an input of the voltage-to-voltage converter component. In one example, the voltage-to-voltage converter component minimizes the sensitivity by maintaining, via the defined feedback capacitance, a constant charge at the sense electrode. In another example, the electromechanical sensor comprises a capacitive sense element comprising a first node comprising the sense electrode. Further, a bias voltage component can apply a bias voltage to a second node of the electromechanical sensor. In yet another example, the electromechanical sensor comprises a piezoelectric sense element.

An inertial measurement unit comprising at least one inertial sensor that is arranged to output an inertial measurement and a primary temperature sensor spatially associated with each inertial sensor that is arranged to output a temperature measurement, and a processor that receives the outputs; wherein the processor is arranged to differentiate the temperature measurement with respect to time so as to determine a temporal temperature gradient output. Existing temperature sensor(s) can be used to observe not only absolute temperature, but also thermal gradients, to further improve performance of the inertial measurement unit (IMU). This approach is distinct from the conventional calibration approach adopted for inertial sensors and IMUs in that the temperature sensor(s) in the device are used to determine temporal temperature gradients, in addition to a temperature output alone, one or both of which can be used for parametric compensation.

Conductive cooled gimbaled inertial measurement units are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes an inertial measurement unit, a gimbal assembly in which the inertial measurement unit is disposed, the gimbal assembly having gaps between each gimbal of the gimbal assembly, the gaps including a gas to conduct heat from the gimbal assembly, and an isothermal dome at least partially surrounding the gimbal assembly, the isothermal dome having a cooling tube disposed on an external surface of the isothermal dome to transfer heat from the gimbal assembly via conduction.

The present invention relates to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and more specifically to an anchor structure for anchoring MEMS components within a MEMS device. The anchor points for rotor and stator components of the device are arranged such that the anchor points are arranged along and overlap a common axis.

A micromechanical structure of a MEMS device, integrated in a die of semiconductor material provided with a substrate and having at least a first axis of symmetry lying in a horizontal plane, has a stator structure, which is fixed with respect to the substrate, and a rotor structure, having a suspended mass, mobile with respect to the substrate and to the stator structure as a result of an external action, the stator structure having fixed sensing electrodes capacitively coupled to the rotor structure; a compensation structure is integrated in the die for compensation of thermo-mechanical strains. The compensation structure has stator compensation electrodes, which are fixed with respect to the substrate, are capacitively coupled to the rotor structure, and are arranged symmetrically to the fixed sensing electrodes with respect to the first axis of symmetry.

An optical sensor having one or more sensing interference elements is disclosed. A first detector function generates a coarse optical path difference signal for example using a discrete Fourier transform of a detected interference spectrum, and a second detector function generates a refined optical path difference signal using the coarse optical path difference signal and for example a cross correlation of the interference spectrum with one or more sets of periodic transfer functions.

A circuit for monitoring an output voltage of a hall sensor includes an input port electrically connected to a first hall-sensor output terminal; an output port to output a monitoring voltage; a holder electrically connected to the input port to save the voltage of the input port; a first buffer including a first output terminal and first input terminal having an input impedance higher than an output impedance, having a voltage corresponding to a voltage of the first output terminal, and electrically connected to the holder; a second buffer including a second output terminal and second input terminal having an input impedance higher than an output impedance, having a voltage corresponding to a voltage of the second output terminal, and electrically connected to the input port; and an amplifier producing the monitoring voltage by amplifying a difference in voltages between the first output terminal and the second output terminal.

A detecting device for detecting a rotation speed of the color wheel includes: a first processing unit, used to compare an external ambient temperature with a preset temperature, and outputs a logic level when the external ambient temperature is greater than the preset temperature; and a light-emitting unit, including a light-emitting body for emitting measurement light, a temperature compensation circuit, wherein the temperature compensation circuit adjusts, according to the logic level and the external ambient temperature, the resistance of a circuit in which the light-emitting body is located, causing a driving current of the light-emitting body to be within a preset current range, a reflection unit disposed on a moving color wheel and used to reflect measurement light, and a measurement and control unit used to receive the measurement light emitted periodically by the reflection unit, and to calculate the number of times that the measurement light enters.

A method for compensating for a temperature drift of an accelerometer for measuring the lateral tilt of a motorbike. When the vehicle is in the “bike upright” condition, and the temperature of the accelerometer is at least 30° C. above its reference temperature, a reading is taken of the acceleration values. These values are then processed in order to identify the coefficient of the slope of the straight line for correcting the offset of each axis of the accelerometer. A processing operation involves verifying the strict monotony of the coefficients in at least two successive readings and ensuring that the mean value thereof is included between determined limits. The mean coefficient that is finally obtained then can be used to correct the temperature of accelerations read over the entire operating range of the accelerometer. Thus, the computation of the tilt angle of the motorbike is more precise.