Abstract
This paper describes the design, realization and experimental characterization of a capacitive angular position sensor. The sensor is composed of two parts, namely the sensing element and the dedicated signal conditioning electronic circuit. The sensor is based on a low-cost Printed Circuit Board technology for the electrodes, and the use of a thick conductive rotor that is electrically floating and does not require any electrical contact to the electronic circuit. The electronic circuit is based on a relaxation oscillator and the output is a DC voltage proportional to the angular position of the rotor. The sensor and the electronic circuit are electrically equivalent to a voltage-excited resistive potentiometer. The fabricated device provides redundancy by including two identical and independent sensors and electronic circuits in the same housing that work as separate measuring sections using the same rotor. Measurement results on the prototype over a measurement range of ±11o gave a best-fit line nonlinearity within ±1% of voltage supply.
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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ferrari, V. et al. (2003). Capacitive Angular-Position Sensor. In: Valldorf, J., Gessner, W. (eds) Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications 2003. VDI-Buch. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76988-0_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76988-0_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00597-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-76988-0
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