System and method for spiral contact force sensors
AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated
InventorJames Pieronek
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for spiral contact force sensors includes a force sensor including a substrate, a first contact having a first spiral pattern formed on the substrate, a second contact having a second spiral pattern formed on the substrate, the first and second spiral patterns being interleaved, and a force sensitive material disposed so as to provide a variable resistance between the first contact and the second contact based on a force applied to the force sensor, wherein a force-resistance relationship of the force sensor is continuous as a radius of a circular region where the force is applied to the force sensor varies.
Claims30
A force sensor comprising:
- a substrate;
- a first contact having a first spiral pattern formed on the substrate;
- a second contact having a second spiral pattern formed on the substrate, the first and second spiral patterns being interleaved;
- and
- a force sensitive material disposed so as to provide a variable resistance between the first contact and the second contact based on a force applied to the force sensor;
- wherein a response relationship of the force sensor is continuous as a radius of a circular region where the force is applied to the force sensor varies.
A method of forming an electrode pattern with a continuous response curve, comprising:
- determining a spiral curve based on a set of parameters;
- drawing a plurality of interleaved spirals based on the spiral curve;
- and
- depositing contacts on a substrate corresponding to the plurality of interleaved spirals.
A force sensor comprising:
- a substrate;
- a force sensitive material disposed on the substrate;
- and
- means for monitoring the force sensitive material with first and second contacts such that a continuous response relationship of the force sensor results.
A computer readable medium storing instructions for forming an electrode pattern with a continuous response curve, comprising:
- determining a spiral curve based on a set of parameters;
- drawing a plurality of interleaved spirals based on the spiral curve,
- wherein the plurality of interleaved spirals can be deposited on a substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.