Patent ID: 8131508

Claim:
A sensor apparatus, comprising: a drive circuit section for outputting a drive signal; a detection device, into which the drive signal from the drive circuit section is inputted; a detection circuit section for fetching a response signal from the detection device, and outputting the response signal; a processing circuit section for fetching a sense signal from the response signal, and outputting the sense signal from a first output terminal; a failure diagnosis circuit for setting as a failure diagnosis object section at least any one of the drive circuit section, the detection device, the detection circuit section and the processing circuit section, determining whether the failure diagnosis object section is normal or abnormal, and outputting a failure detection signal from a second output terminal in the case of determining abnormality; and a time point measuring unit for measuring time point information, and adding the time point information to an output concerning generation of the failure detection signal outputted from the failure diagnosis object section and an output concerning generation of the sense signal outputted from the failure diagnosis object section, such that the output concerning generation of the failure detection signal is made to correspond to the output concerning generation of the sense signal using time point information in terms of time points, wherein, in the case of the failure diagnosis circuit determining abnormality of the failure diagnosis object section, the first output terminal outputs the sense signal added with the time point information at the time of occurrence of the abnormality and the sense signal added with the time point information after the time of occurrence of the abnormality, as a signal outside a range of a normal output voltage.