OPTICAL SENSOR

Organization Name

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Inventor(s)

Hiroshi Watanabe of Nagaokakyo-shi JP

Koichi Inoue of Nagaokakyo-shi JP

Takatoshi Kato of Nagaokakyo-shi JP

OPTICAL SENSOR

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 19018450 titled 'OPTICAL SENSOR

Original Abstract Submitted

An optical sensor includes two light emitters with the same or substantially the same temperature dependence of luminous intensity of light. A reflector reflects and diffuses light emitted by the light emitters such that a portion of the reflected light is incident on a light receiver. An elastic support supports the reflector, and deforms and changes a relative position of the reflector and the light emitters and the light receiver. A processor calculates a physical quantity depending on an amount of deformation of the elastic support based a ratio between two amounts of light received by the light receiver when respective light emitters emit light at different timings. The light emitters and the light receiver are fixed relative to each other, and a distance from one of the light emitters to the light receiver is different from a distance from another of the light emitters to the light receiver.