Patent ID: 7793542

Claim:
A three-axis MEMS transducer featuring a caddie-corner proof mass, the proof mass comprising: a planar main body portion of conductive material, the main body portion having a width and a length dimension and at least four side edges, wherein an x-axis sense direction is defined from a first side edge to an opposite first side edge and a y-axis sense direction is defined from a second side edge to an opposite second side edge, the x-axis sense direction being perpendicular to the y-axis sense direction, the main body portion further having at least two corners, wherein a first corner of the at least two corners is positioned opposite a second corner of the at least two corners; and a planar extra mass caddie-corner feature positioned about the first corner of the main body portion, wherein the extra mass caddie-corner feature and the main body portion comprise a single caddie-corner proof mass having a z-sense pivot axis disposed at an angle of ninety degrees to a diagonal extending from the extra mass corner feature to the second corner of the main body portion, wherein the proof mass is configured to teeter-totter corner to corner about the z-sense pivot axis in response to one of a z-axis acceleration and a z-axis deceleration, and wherein the planar extra mass caddie-corner feature is positioned farther from the z-sense pivot axis than the second corner of the planar main body.