Method for Determining a Time of Contact on a Capacitive Sensor Element

A method for determining a time of contact of a capacitive sensor, the method comprising:

• continuously measuring a capacitance value of the capacitive sensor and processing the measured capacitance value into a digital sensor signal (SS);
• filtering the sensor signal (SS) by a digital filter to output therefrom a filter signal (F S);
• identifying initial dynamics of the filter signal (FS) upon the filter signal (FS) exceeding a first set filter threshold value (FT1);
• determining a time at which the filter signal (FS) falls below a second set filter threshold value (FT2) as being a potential time of contact of the capacitive sensor;
• determining an actual time of contact of the capacitive sensor when the sensor signal (SS) relative to an offset of the sensor signal (SS) exceeds a sensor signal threshold value (ST1), wherein the offset of the sensor signal (SS) is a value of the sensor signal (SS) prior to the contact of the capacitive sensor;
• and
• outputting the actual time of contact of the capacitive sensor.