Capacitive sensor with differential shield
AssigneeAnalog Devices, Inc.
InventorAdrian Anthony Flanagan
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Abstract
The present disclosure describes a differential shield capacitive sensor design. The sensor design uses a differential measurement to measure capacitance and a pair of traces are used to differentially reject the response of the sensor traces and balance any parasitic capacitances. In some embodiments, the sensor design includes a differential sensor design on a bottom side of a flex circuit to differentially balance the environment and reject noise coupling to the sensor. The top side of the flex circuit can include a single ended design for proper environment sensing. The spatial arrangement and size of the sensors may vary depending on the application.
Claims20
A capacitive sensor for sensing an environment of the capacitive sensor using differential sampling, wherein the capacitive sensor comprises:
- a single-ended portion;
- a segmented differential shield portion having multiple segments;
- and
- a pair of traces;
- wherein the single-ended portion is connected to one of the traces, and segments of the segmented differential shield portion are connected to either one of the traces.
A system for sensing an environment of the capacitive sensor using differential sampling, the system comprising:
- a capacitive sensor comprises:
- a single-ended portion;
- a segmented differential shield portion having multiple segments;
- and
- a pair of traces;
- wherein the single-ended portion is connected to one of the traces, and segments of the segmented differential shield portion are connected to either one of the traces;
- and
- a circuitry having two terminals connected to the pair of traces for differentially charging the capacitive sensor and sampling the capacitive sensor to obtain two differential signals representative of the environment.
A method for sensing an environment of a capacitive sensor using differential sampling, the method comprising:
- differentially charging the capacitive sensor, wherein the capacitive sensor comprises:
- a single-ended portion;
- a segmented differential shield portion having multiple segments;
- and
- a pair of traces;
- wherein the single-ended portion is connected to one of the traces;
- and segments of the segmented differential shield portion are connected to either one of the pair of traces;
- and
- sampling the capacitive sensor to obtain two differential signals representative of the environment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.