Back to results
US 10,120,006 B2Granted
Method of operating LC sensors, corresponding system and apparatus
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsRiccardo Condorelli, Daniele Mangano
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one embodiment, an inductive/LC sensor device includes: an energy storage device for accumulating excitation energy, an LC sensor configured to oscillate using energy accumulated in the energy storage device and transferred to the LC sensor, an energy detector for detecting the energy accumulated in the energy storage device reaching a charge threshold, and at least one switch coupled with the energy detector for terminating accumulating excitation energy in the energy storage device when the charge threshold is detected having been reached by the energy detector.
Claims13
A method comprising:
- accumulating excitation energy for an inductive-capacitive (LC) sensor,
- oscillating the LC sensor using the excitation energy accumulated,
- detecting the excitation energy accumulated reaching a charge threshold, and
- terminating accumulating the excitation energy for the LC sensor in response to detecting the excitation energy accumulated reaching the charge threshold, wherein the accumulating includes:
- short-circuiting a reference capacitor that is coupled in series to the LC sensor,
- starting accumulating excitation energy for the sensor by coupling the LC sensor to an energy source with the reference capacitor short-circuited, and
- removing the short-circuit across the reference capacitor while maintaining the LC sensor coupled to the energy source.
4 more elements
An LC sensor device, comprising:
- an energy storage device configured to accumulate excitation energy,
- an LC sensor coupled to the energy storage device and configured to oscillate when energized by the excitation energy in the energy storage device,
- an energy detector configured to detect the excitation energy in the energy storage device reaching a charge threshold, and
- at least one switch coupled with the energy detector and configured to terminate accumulating the excitation energy in the energy storage device in response to energy detector detecting that the charge threshold has been reached by the excitation energy in the energy storage device, wherein:
- the energy storage device includes a reference capacitor coupled in series to the LC sensor;
- the at least one switch includes a first switch and a second switch, the first switch being configured to selectively couple the LC sensor to an energy source and the second switch being configured to selectively short-circuit the reference capacitor, and
- the energy detector is configured to close the first switch to electrically couple the LC sensor to the energy source and open the second switch to remove the short-circuit across the reference capacitor while the LC sensor is electrically coupled to the energy source by the first switch.
4 more elements
A fluid flow sensing device, comprising:
- a sense structure configured to be moved by a fluid flow;
- and
- an LC sensor device coupled to the sense structure and configured to sense movement of the sense structure, the LC sensor including:
- an energy storage device configured to accumulate excitation energy,
- an LC sensor coupled to the energy storage device and configured to oscillate when energized by the excitation energy in the energy storage device,
- an energy detector configured to detect the excitation energy in the energy storage device reaching a charge threshold, and
- at least one switch coupled with the energy detector and configured to terminate accumulating the excitation energy in the energy storage device in response to the energy detector detecting that the charge threshold has been reached by the excitation energy in the energy storage device, wherein:
- the energy storage device includes a reference capacitor coupled in series to the LC sensor;
- the at least one switch includes a first switch and a second switch, the first switch being configured to selectively couple the LC sensor to an energy source and the second switch being configured to selectively short-circuit the reference capacitor, and
- the energy detector is configured close the first switch to electrically couple the LC sensor to the energy source and open the second switch to remove the short-circuit across the reference capacitor while the LC sensor is electrically coupled to the energy source by the first switch.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.