Sensor for parallel measurement of pressure and acceleration and use of the sensor in a vehicle battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12535374-B2
Application number	US-202217934057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2022
Priority date	Sep 28, 2021
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

A sensor for parallel measurement of pressure and acceleration of a vehicle, including a substrate, a sensor element disposed on the substrate, a material being connected with the sensor element and being exposed to the environment of the sensor, wherein the material is configured to act as a seismic mass, and an electronic circuitry connected with the sensor element and including a first filter and a second filter, wherein the first and second filters have different filter characteristics so that an output of the first filter is representative for the pressure and an output of the second is representative for the acceleration.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A sensor for parallel measurements of pressure and acceleration, comprising:
a substrate; a sensor element disposed on the substrate and comprising a membrane; a material being mechanically coupled with the sensor element and being exposed to an environment of the sensor, wherein the material covers the membrane, wherein the material is configured to act as a seismic mass, wherein the material has a property that is sensitive to the pressure and to the acceleration that affects an interaction of the material with the sensor element, and wherein the sensor element is configured to generate a sensor signal based on the interaction of the material with the sensor element; and electronic circuitry connected to the sensor element and comprising a first filter and a second filter, the first filter and the second filter both being configured to receive an electrical signal derived from the sensor signal, wherein:
the first filter and the second filter have different filter characteristics so that an output of the first filter is representative of the pressure and an output of the second filter is representative of the acceleration.

2 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the first filter is a low pass filter comprising a first cutoff frequency.

3 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the second filter is a high pass filter or a band pass filter.

4 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the first filter is a low pass filter comprising an upper cutoff frequency and the second filter is a high pass filter or a band pass filter having a lower cutoff frequency,
wherein the upper cutoff frequency of the low pass filter is less than the lower cutoff frequency of the high pass filter or the band pass filter such that a first passband of the first filter and a second passband of the second filter are mutually exclusive of each other.

5 . The sensor according to claim 2 , wherein:
the second filter is another low pass filter comprising a second cutoff frequency that is higher than the first cutoff frequency.

6 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the material comprises a viscoelastic material.

7 . The sensor according to claim 6 , wherein:
the viscoelastic material comprises one or more of a polymer, an amorphous polymer, a semicrystalline polymer, a biopolymer, or a gel.

8 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the seismic mass provided by the material is sufficiently high so that the output of the second filter provides a measurable signal.

9 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the electronic circuitry comprises an analog-to-digital converter that is connected to an output of the sensor element for converting the sensor signal into the electrical signal, and the first filter and the second filter are configured as digital filters.

10 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the sensor element comprises a micro-electro-mechanical sensor (MEMS).

11 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the sensor element and the electronic circuitry are monolithically integrated in one semiconductor device.

12 . The sensor according to claim 1 , wherein:
the sensor element is integrated in a first semiconductor device and the electronic circuitry is integrated in a second semiconductor device.

13 . The sensor of claim 1 , wherein the first filter and the second filter are electrically coupled to the sensor element in parallel such that the first filter receives the electrical signal at a first filter input of the first filter and the second filter receives the electrical signal at a second filter input of the second filter.

14 . The sensor of claim 1 , wherein the output of the first filter is insensitive to the acceleration and the output of the second filter is insensitive to the pressure.

15 . A vehicle, comprising:
a sensor for parallel measurements of pressure and acceleration of a vehicle, the sensor comprising:
a substrate;
a sensor element disposed on the substrate and comprising a membrane;
a material being mechanically coupled with the sensor element and being exposed to an environment of the sensor, wherein the material covers the membrane, wherein the material is configured to act as a seismic mass, wherein the material has a property that is sensitive to the pressure and to the acceleration that affects an interaction of the material with the sensor element, and wherein the sensor element is configured to generate a sensor signal based on the interaction of the material with the sensor element; and
electronic circuitry connected to the sensor element and comprising a first filter and a second filter, the first filter and the second filter both being configured to receive an electrical signal derived from the sensor signal, wherein:
the first filter and the second filter have different filter characteristics so that an output of the first filter is representative of the pressure and an output of the second filter is representative of the acceleration.

16 . The vehicle according to claim 15 , further comprising:
a battery, wherein the sensor is arranged in the battery.

17 . The vehicle according to claim 16 , wherein:
the battery is a large-scale lithium ion battery.

18 . The vehicle according to claim 15 , further comprising:
a battery; and a battery monitoring system, wherein the sensor is a gas sensor that is part of the battery monitoring system.

19 . The vehicle according to claim 15 , further comprising:
an airbag, wherein the sensor is arranged in the airbag.

Assignees

• Infineon Technologies Ag

Inventors

• Köhler Daniel
• Buiculescu Vlad
• Brandl Florian
• Meinhold Dirk
• Landgraf Erhard
• Schaller Rainer Markus
• Eckinger Markus

Classifications

• G01P15/08

  with conversion into electric or magnetic values · CPC title

• G01P1/00

  Details of instruments · CPC title

• B60L58/10

  for monitoring or controlling batteries · CPC title

• G01L19/0092 Primary

  Pressure sensor associated with other sensors, e.g. for measuring acceleration or temperature (G01L9/025, G01L9/045, G01L9/065, G01L9/085, G01L9/105, G01L9/125, G01L19/02, G01L19/04 take precedence; measuring two or more variable G01D21/02; temperature sensors with pressure compensation G01K1/26) · CPC title

• B60L3/0046

  relating to electric energy storage systems, e.g. batteries or capacitors · CPC title