Patent ID: 7097201

Claim:
In a vehicle having doors, front and rear wheels and a longitudinal axis between a front and rear of the vehicle such that a lateral direction is defined perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the vehicle also having left and right sides, comprising: an occupant protection apparatus for protecting an occupant of the vehicle in the event of an impact into the left or right side of the vehicle; a side impact, electronic crash sensor assembly for detecting impact into the left or right side of the vehicle and for controlling said occupant protection apparatus in response to the detected impact, said crash sensor assembly comprising: a sensor housing arranged in a door or between inner and outer side panels along the left or right side of the vehicle; a movable sensing mass arranged within and movable in the lateral direction relative to said sensor housing in response to lateral accelerations of said sensor housing; a micro-processor containing an algorithm arranged to generate a time-varying signal representative of movement of said mass in the lateral direction, analyze the signal representative of the movement of said mass and generate a deployment signal based thereon; and control means for receiving the deployment signal from said micro-processor and controlling deployment of said occupant protection apparatus based thereon; said sensor housing being arranged in such a position and a direction in the door or between the inner and outer panels along the left or right side of the vehicle as to cause movement of said mass upon an impact into the left or right side of said vehicle resulting in lateral acceleration of said sensor housing.