CAPACITIVE_SENSOR_SYSTEM

Published:2009/6/24 21:08:00 Author:Jessie | From:SeekIC

This figure illustrates the electric-field configuration of a capacitive proximity sensor of the ca-paciflector type. It includes a sensing electrode driven by an alternating voltage, which gives rise to an electric field in the vicinity of the electrode; an object that enters the electric field can be de-tected by its effect on the capacitance between the sensing electrode and electrical ground.Also, it includes a shielding electrode (in this case, driven shield 1), which is excited via a volt-age follower at the same voltage as that applied to the sensing electrode to concentrate more of the electric outward from the sensing electrode, increasing the sensitivity and range of the sensor. Be-cause the shielding electrode is driven via a voltage follower, it does not present a significant elec-trical load to the source of the alternating voltage.In this case, the layered electrode structure also includes a reference electrode adjacent to ground, plus a second shielding electrode (driven shield 2), which is excited via a voltage follower at the same voltage as that applied to the reference electrode. Driven shield 2 isolates the reference electrode from the electric field generated by driven shield 1 and the sensing electrode so that a nearby object exerts no ca[acitive effect on the reference electrode.The excitation is supplied by a crystal-controlled oscillator and applied to the sensing and ref-erence electrodes via a bridge circuit. Fixed capacitors C1 and C2 (or, alternatively, fixed resistors RI and R2) are chosen to balance the bridge; that is, to make the magnitude of the voltage at sens-ing-electrode node S equal the magnitude of the voltage at reference-electrode node R.The voltages at S and R are peak-detected and fed to a differential amplifier, which puts out volt-age 7, proportional to the difference between them. When no object intrudes into the electric field of the sensing electrode, the bridge remains in balance, and Vu - 0. When an object intrudes, it changes CS, unbalances the bridge, and causes Vu to differ from zero. The closer the object comes to the sensing electrode, the larger (Vu) becomes.An additional output voltage KVr is available, where K is the amplification and Vr is the voltage on the reference electrode.



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