JPH09170924A - Inclination detection sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inclination detection sensor surely detecting the inclination of a to-be-detecting material in a simple structure. SOLUTION: This sensor is provided with a light emission part 1 emitting light, a photodetecting part 2 detecting the light from the light emission part 1, a base body 1 which seals the light emission part 1 and the photodetecting part 2 so that an inclination surface is formed above them, a rid body 4 attached to the base body 3 for covering the inclination surface, and a sphere 5 moving an the inclination surface between the lid body 4 and the inclination surface above. And, on the inclination surface, two grooves 6a and 6b in which the light emission part 1 and the photodetecting part 2 are individually housed are provided with the distance smaller than the diameter dimension of the sphere 5, and a barrier part 7 which can be contact with the sphere 5 on the inclination surface is provided between the groove 6a and 6b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tilt detecting sensor for detecting the tilt of an object.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an inclination detecting sensor is composed of a light emitting element which emits light and a light receiving element which is provided so as to be able to receive the light emitted from the light emitting element. There is widely known a photo interrupter that detects the presence or absence of an object by detecting whether the generated light is blocked or not.

Conventionally, as a tilt detecting optical sensor using a photo interrupter, as shown in FIG.
1a and a light emitting element 21 capable of receiving light generated from the light emitting element 21a
a photointerrupter 21 including a light receiving element 21b provided to face a, and a photointerrupter 21 inside.
A lower case 22 made of a resin molded body having an open upper part 22a for storing
an upper case 23 attached to a, and a bearing 23 extending downward from the upper case 23 into the lower case 22.
Light-emitting and light-receiving element 2 centering on a shaft 23b pivotally supported by
A fan-shaped shading plate 2 swingably provided between 1a and 21b
A structure consisting of 4 and 4 is known.

In this type of sensor, since the light shielding plate 24 is always positioned below the support shaft 23b due to the action of gravity, when it is mounted or fixed on an object to be detected (not shown) whose inclination is to be detected. When the sensor is in the horizontal state or in the non-inclined state where the inclination is within a certain range, the light generated from the light emitting element 21a toward the light receiving element 21b is blocked by the light shielding plate 24, so that the light is transmitted to the light receiving element 21b. Light is not received, but when the object to be detected is tilted to one side beyond a certain angle, the light shield plate 24 corresponds to the photointerrupter 21 fixed to the lower case 22. Since the relative position is shifted, the light generated from the light emitting element 21a is not blocked by the light shielding plate 24 and is received by the light receiving element 21b.
The light is received on the side, and a current is generated between the lead terminals of the lead terminals 21b of the light receiving element 21b by this light reception, and the inclination is detected.

[0005]

The demand for the sensor using the photo interrupter as described above is increased with the progress of the semiconductor technology and the technology relating to the optical element, and the number of parts in the manufacturing is further reduced and the process is simplified. There is a strong demand. However, in the conventional sensor as described above,
Bearings 23 for providing the light shielding plate 24 on the upper case 23
a must be provided, and the light-shielding plate 2 formed with a specific shape for tilt detection on a support shaft 23b that is pivotally supported.
4 must be integrally formed or separately formed, and then provided by assembling, which makes it difficult to reduce the number of parts below a certain level due to mechanical complexity, and simplifies the manufacturing process to a certain degree. It is difficult to go beyond.

Accordingly, the present invention is to obtain an inclination detection sensor which has a simple structure and is capable of surely detecting the inclination of an object to be detected.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a light emitting portion for generating light, a light receiving portion for receiving light from the light emitting portion, and the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion above these. A base body sealed so as to form an inclined surface, a lid mounted on the base body so as to cover the inclined surface, and movable on the inclined surface between the lid body and the inclined surface. An inclination detection sensor including a sphere, wherein two groove portions respectively accommodating the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are separately arranged on the inclined surface in a spaced dimension smaller than a diameter dimension of the sphere. In addition, the present invention provides an inclination detection sensor characterized in that a barrier portion that can contact the spherical body on the inclined surface is provided upright between the groove portions.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of a tilt detecting sensor of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in the cross section of FIG. 1A, the tilt detection sensor of this embodiment has a light emitting section 1 for generating light, a light receiving section 2 for receiving the light from the light emitting section 1, the light emitting section 1 and the light receiving section. Part 2
And a base 3 made of an opaque PPS resin having a substantially cubic shape (not shown), which is sealed so that an inclined surface 3a having an inverted conical shape (a cross section is a substantially V shape) is formed above them. ,
A lid 4 made of an opaque PPS resin attached to the base 3 so as to cover the inclined surface 3a, and stainless steel or the like that can move on the inclined surface 3a between the lid 4 and the inclined surface 3a. And a sphere 5 made of a hard sphere.

The inclined surface 3a is a reference surface (or the base 3).
The lower surface) H is inclined at a constant angle θ. When the reference plane H is parallel to the horizontal plane (plane perpendicular to the gravity direction), the sphere 5 is located at the lowermost end of the inclined surface 3a (hereinafter referred to as the reference position). At the reference position of the inclined surface 3a, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), two substantially rectangular parallelepiped groove portions 6a and 6b are provided side by side. The LED element 1 is provided below the groove 6a.
The light emitting unit 1 in which a is sealed with a translucent PPS resin is housed, and the light receiving unit 2 in which the PT (phototransistor) element 2a is sealed with a translucent PPS resin is housed below the groove 6b. There is. The distance between the grooves 6a and 6b is about 0.5 mm, which is smaller than the diameter of the sphere 5 (about 3 mm).

A barrier portion 7 is provided between the groove portions 6a and 6b.
Is erected up to a height at which it contacts the sphere 5 existing at the reference position of the inclined surface 3a. The barrier portion 7 includes the groove portions 6a, 6
It is formed so as to be continuous with the side wall surface of b. Light emitting unit 1
LED element 1a is electrically connected to one lead terminal 1b by die bonding, and electrically connected to the other lead terminal (not shown) juxtaposed to the other lead terminal 1b by wire bonding. ing. Further, the PT element 2a of the light receiving section 2 has substantially the same structure as the light emitting section 1, and is electrically connected to the pair of lead terminals 2b.
As shown in FIG. 1A again, the lead terminals 1b and 2b project from both side surfaces of the base body 3 and are bent along the side surfaces of the base body 3. The light emitting surface of the LED element 1a and the light receiving surface of the PT element 2a are directed toward the sphere 5.

The lid 4 has claw portions 4a formed at both ends thereof, and a circular through hole 4 formed in the claw portion 4a.
b is fitted to the convex portions 3a formed on both side surfaces of the base body 3. The operation of the tilt detection sensor thus configured is
The case where the tilt detection sensor is mounted on an object (detection object) whose tilt is to be detected and used will be described as an example.

The object to be detected here is a small camera, and the tilt detection sensor is used to detect the tilt of the camera itself when photographing an object. As shown in FIG. 2 (a),
A mounting substrate 9 made of ceramics, on which a wiring pattern (not shown) is formed, is provided inside the camera (the overall view is omitted). The tilt detection sensor is mounted on the wiring pattern so that the lower surface of the base body 3 is substantially parallel to the mounting surface of the mounting board 9. Specifically, the tilt detection sensor is mounted in such a structure that its lead terminals 1b, 2b are inserted into through holes (not shown) formed on the wiring pattern.

In such a camera, when the inclination angle θ'with respect to the horizontal plane H'is smaller than the inclination angle θ of the inclination surface 3a, the sphere 5 remains stationary at the reference position and the light from the LED element 1a (in the figure) (The optical axis of is indicated by the alternate long and short dash line) is irradiated to the sphere 5 and reflected into the groove 6a, so that the PT element 2
No light is transmitted to a, and the subject can be photographed in a state where there is almost no inclination.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2B, the camera is
When the inclination angle θ ′ is larger than the inclination angle θ of the inclined surface 3a, the sphere 5 moves on the inclined surface 3a and moves away from the reference position, and the light from the LED element 1a is irradiated on the lid 4 toward the PT element 2a. And is received by the PT element 2a.
The PT element 2a transmits the received light to a control circuit (not shown) connected to the PT element 2a, and interrupts the photographing of the subject according to the judgment of the control circuit.

Thus, the tilt detecting sensor detects the tilt of the object to be detected by utilizing the light received by the PT element 2a due to the movement of the sphere 5 accompanying the tilt. Here, in the case of the small-sized handheld camera as described above, it is easy for vibration and shaking to be transmitted to it, and it is quite difficult to always maintain a stable state parallel to the horizontal plane. Under such conditions, if the detection of the tilt detection sensor is too sensitive (it is detected with a slight tilt), there is a problem that it is difficult to use the camera. On the other hand, in the inclination detection sensor of the present invention, even if the sphere 5 slightly moves on the inclined surface 3a due to vibration or shaking and moves away from the reference position, the sphere 5 has a diameter dimension of the groove portion 6.
The groove portions 6a, 6 are
Since the sphere 5 is likely to exist on at least one of b, the light from the LED element 1a is reflected by the sphere 5 and PT
It does not reach the element 2a and is not received. Therefore, the tilt detection sensor of the present invention is not detected at a small tilt angle, and interruption of photographing of the subject due to a malfunction is less likely to occur. Of course, since the barrier portion 7 exists between the groove portions 6a and 6b, the light from the LED element 1a does not reach the PT element 2a directly.

Next, a method of manufacturing the tilt detecting sensor having the above structure will be briefly described. First, a light-emitting portion and a light-receiving portion, which are sealed with a light-transmissive resin (using a conventional resin molding method) and have the above-described configuration, are prepared, and the non-translucent light is transmitted in the order described below. Seal with a resin. For the molding of the base body 3, a lower mold fixed to a base (not shown) made of hard alloy and an upper mold movable vertically with respect to the lower mold are used.

The lower die 9 is, as shown in FIG.
A concave portion 11 is formed, and a substantially conical convex portion 12 is formed in the concave portion 11. At the tip of the convex portion 12, substantially rectangular parallelepiped protrusions 12a and 12b are provided in parallel. Using this lower mold 9, as shown in FIG. 3B, the light emitting unit 1 and the light receiving unit 2 are placed on the protrusions 12a and 12b of the lower mold 9 so as to face each other.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3 (c), the upper die 1
0 is moved downward (by extension of a pneumatic cylinder (not shown)) toward the lower mold 9. A recess 13 is formed in the upper mold 10 at a position facing the recess 11, and a protrusion 12 is formed.
An extruding pin 14 made of a hard alloy that is vertically movable is inserted at a position facing a and 12b. The push-out pin 14 is for releasing the base body formed in the recesses 11 and 13 by pressing it. In this way, the space 15 for molding the base 3 is defined by combining the recesses 11 and 13, and the molten PPS resin is injected into the space 15.

As described above, the above description (see FIG. 1 (a))
The inclined surface 3 a of the base body 3 is formed along the peripheral surface of the convex portion 12. The angle of the inclined surface 3a is determined by the inclination angle of the peripheral surface of the convex portion 12. The grooves 6a and 6b are the protrusions 1
2a, 12b is formed in the region where the barriers 7 are present, and the barrier portion 7 is a space 15 defined between the protrusions 12a, 12b.
Formed by The distance between the barriers 7 is determined by the protrusion 12
It is determined by the distance between a and 12b.

Further, the substrate hardened in the space 15 is released from the upper mold 10 by raising the upper mold 10 and then extruding the extruding pin 14. After that, in a stage different from the above (not shown below), the spheres 5 fed out from the parts feeder in an aligned state are separated one by one and the inclined surface 3a of the base 3 is separated.
Then, the lid 4 is placed on the sphere 5 on the inclined surface 3a.
Is attached to the base 1 so as to cover.

Then, the lead terminals 1b, 2b are formed along the side surface of the base body by a conventional forming process, and an inclination detecting sensor having a structure as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained. In the present embodiment, the back surface of the lid body 4 has a flat shape, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the back surface of the lid body 4 can be easily reflected in order to easily reflect the light from the light emitting portion toward the light receiving portion. You may provide a curved-shaped dent part. In this case, it is preferable that the curved surface shape of the recess is similar to the arc shape centered around the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion. It is also possible to form a white tape or a light reflecting film of paint on the back surface of the lid 4.

In this embodiment, the groove has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, but it may have a columnar shape and the shape is not limited. Further, when the groove portion has a tapered tip end, the groove portion is easily released. Further, in the present embodiment, the distance between the grooves is about 0.5 mm, which is smaller than the diameter of the sphere (about 3 mm). However, this detailed size does not limit this. The larger the size, the easier it is to prevent malfunction of tilt detection.

In addition, in this embodiment, PPS is used as the substrate.
Although a resin is used, the present invention is not limited to this, and a liquid crystal polymer or the like may be used. Further, the barrier portion of the present invention,
The shape or the like is not limited as long as it can be brought into contact with the sphere and is provided upright between the groove portions so that the light from the light emitting portion is not directly received by the light receiving portion.

[0024]

Therefore, the tilt detecting sensor of the present invention is such that, for example, even if a sphere slightly moves on an inclined surface due to vibration or shaking and moves away from the reference position, the sphere has a diameter dimension of two groove portions separated from each other. The distance is considerably larger than the distance, and the sphere is likely to be present on at least one of the groove portions, so that a malfunction due to vibration or shaking is unlikely to occur.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a tilt detection sensor of the present invention,
(A) is sectional drawing, (b) is principal part sectional drawing which shows the groove part and barrier part of an inclined surface.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example in which the tilt detection sensor of FIG. 1 is used in a small camera.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view illustrating a method for manufacturing the tilt detection sensor of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional detection sensor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Light emitting part 2 Light receiving part 3 Base body 4 Lid body 5 Sphere 6 Groove part 7 Barrier part 9 Lower mold 10 Upper mold

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] December 25, 1995

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Drawing

[Correction target item name] Fig. 1

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

FIG.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A light emitting portion that emits light, a light receiving portion that receives light from the light emitting portion, and a base body that seals the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion so that an inclined surface is formed above them. A tilt detection sensor comprising: a lid mounted on a base so as to cover the inclined surface; and a sphere capable of moving on the inclined surface between the lid and the inclined surface. On the surface, two groove portions respectively accommodating the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are arranged side by side with a spacing dimension smaller than the diameter dimension of the sphere, and a barrier capable of contacting the sphere on the inclined surface. An inclination detecting sensor, wherein a portion is provided upright between the groove portions. 2. The tilt detecting sensor according to claim 1, wherein the lid has a curved recess formed on a surface thereof facing the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion.