Patent ID: 8322214
Filing Date: 2012-12-04
Classification: G01C,G01P

Abstract:
1. A sensor device comprising: a driving circuit configured to output a drive signal; a sensing element to which the drive signal from the driving circuit is supplied; a detecting circuit configured to extract a response signal from the sensing element; a processing circuit configured to extract a sense signal from the response signal from the detecting circuit; an output circuit configured to output the sense signal from the processing circuit; a failure diagnosing circuit electrically coupled to a part subjected to failure diagnosis which is at least one of the detecting circuit, the processing circuit, and the output circuit, the failure diagnosing circuit being configured to determine whether the part subjected to failure diagnosis is normal or abnormal, and to output a failure detection signal based on results of the determination; and a time determining part configured to determine time point information, add the time point information to an output signal related to generation of the failure detection signal, and add the time point information to an output signal related to generation of the sense signal, wherein the failure detection signal is correlated with the sense signal, using the time point information and, the output circuit is further configured to output the sense signal with the time point information added by the time determining part after the failure diagnosing circuit outputs the failure detection signal with the time point information which is the same as the time point information added to the sense signal.