Capacitive Sensor Switch with Optical Sensor
AssigneeCaptron Electronic GmbH
InventorKilian Hüttenhofer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sensor switch with water suppression includes a sensor electrode and a photodiode connected to an evaluation circuit. The evaluation circuit generates a capacitive sensor signal indicative of an electrically-conductive object in the proximity of the sensor switch and an optical sensor signal indicative of an object at least partially opaque or impermeable to light in the proximity of the sensor switch. The capacitive sensor signal and the optical sensor signal are correlated with one another to generate an output signal.
Claims12
A sensor switch comprising at least one sensor electrode, at least one photosensor, and an evaluation circuit connected to both the at least one sensor electrode and the at least one photosensor,
- wherein the evaluation circuit is configured to:
- generate a capacitive sensor signal indicative of an electrically-conductive object present in a proximity of the sensor switch,
- generate an optical sensor signal indicative of an object at least partially opaque to light present in the proximity of the sensor switch,
- generate a correlated output signal from the capacitive sensor signal and the optical sensor signal, the correlated output signal representing that an electrically-conductive object that is at least partially opaque to light is in the proximity of the sensor switch,
- and wherein one of the following conditions is satisfied:
- (1a) the evaluation circuit is configured to store a dynamic threshold value based on the capacitive sensor signal when the optical sensor signal exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and to generate the correlated output signal when the capacitive sensor signal exceeds the dynamic threshold value;
- and
- (1b) the evaluation circuit is configured to store a dynamic threshold value based on the optical sensor signal when the capacitive sensor signal exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and to generate the correlated output signal when the optical sensor signal exceeds the dynamic threshold value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.