Magnetic sensor
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Corporation
InventorsMasahiro YOKOTANI, Naoki HIRAOKA
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Abstract
The magnetic sensor in the invention includes a detecting section that detects a change of magnetic flux due to a movement of the magnetic movable, comparator circuits constituting a converting section that converts a change of magnetic flux detected by the detecting section into an electric amount, and a D-FF circuit device, in a sensor unit having a power-supplying power terminal VB, a ground terminal GND and an output terminal VOUT. A current control section is provided to change the amount of current flowing through at least one of the power terminal and the ground terminal, correspondingly to a moving direction of the magnetic movable. Thus, a moving direction of the magnetic movable can be determined depending upon the amount of current.
Claims6
A magnetic sensor comprising:
- a magnetic movable that moves correspondingly to a movement of an object-being-detected;
- a sensor section provided opposite to the magnetic movable through a gap and for detecting a change of magnetic field in the gap based on a movement of the magnetic movable;
- a converting section that converts a change of magnetic field, detected by the sensor section, into an electric amount change and outputs an electric amount change converted;
- in a sensor unit having a power terminal and a ground terminal for grounding, and an output terminal;
- a determining section that determines a moving direction of the object-being-detected depending upon an output of the converting section through the output terminal of the sensor unit;
- a current control section that controls an amount of current flowing through at least one of the power terminal and the ground terminal correspondingly to a moving direction of the magnetic movable;
- the determining section detecting a moving direction of the object-being-detected depending upon the amount of current.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.