Development of a roll-over sensor

摘要

Almost all the new automobiles come equipped with the air bag system: the device that will protect passengers in car collisions.The air bag system is controlled by the "air bag ECU(Electronic Control Unit)".We at Fujitsu Ten have been manufacturing and supplying air bag ECUs to Japanese auto makers for their domestic cars.Lately, there have emerged new demands for much more reliable system than the air bag alone system. Such demand is very strong especially in the United States and Europe where there are lots of fatal car accidents reported daily: many of those ending upin overturning of cars with passengers inside.As an answer to the market demand, Fujitsu Ten and Fujitsu Media Device Co.Ltd.(a Fujitsu Group member)have jointly developed a key device that will detect the roll-over of a car. The new-developed device is an angular velocity sensor(known as "theroll-over sensor"), which by far is superior in its compactness and accuracy to the counterpart products manufactured by competitors.The following thesis explains a structural and functional overview of the roll-over sensor (as of 1998)and introduces features of its essential element technologies and evaluation method.