Patent 7258772 was granted and assigned to Hitachi (Japanese train) on August, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In an oxygen sensor that measures a limiting current of when a voltage is applied between pumping electrodes, and also performs a rich/lean judgment based on an electromotive force generated between one of the pumping electrodes and a reference electrode, an oxygen supply voltage for supplying oxygen to the reference electrode is applied, and the reference electrode is covered with a dense layer.