Angle sensor having heterogenous redundant sensing
AssigneeAllegro MicroSystems, LLC
InventorsRémy Lassalle-Balier, Alexander Latham, Yannick Vuillermet, Peyman Moein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for having heterogenous redundant angle sensing. In embodiments, an angle sensor has inductive sensing and magnetic sensing for a target having a magnetic portion and a metallic portion. In embodiments, the magnetic portion includes a ring magnet centered within the metallic portion, which can be referred to as a cap. In some embodiments, the target-facing side of the cap is sloped. In some embodiments, the target-facing side of the cap and the ring magnet are sloped.
Claims20
A redundant sensing system IC package to determine angular position of a target, comprising:
- an inductive sensing system, comprising:
- a main coil to direct a magnetic field at the target for inducing eddy currents in the target;
- a receive coil having a butterfly configuration, wherein the receive coil has sine and cosine coils for detecting a reflected field from the target wherein each of the sine and cosine coils is configured such that an asymmetric reflected field from the target seen by the sine and cosine coils corresponds to an air gap between a surface of the target in relation to the main coil and the receive coil;
- a magnetic field sensing system to detect the angular position of the target using magnetic field sensing elements, wherein the target has a magnetic portion affecting the magnetic field sensing elements and a metallic portion in which the eddy currents are induced, and
- wherein the IC package is located in relation to the receive coil.
A redundant sensing system IC package to determine angular position of a target, comprising:
- an inductive sensing system, comprising:
- a main coil to direct a magnetic field at the target for inducing eddy currents in the target;
- a receive coil having a butterfly configuration, wherein the receive coil has only a sine or cosine coil for detecting a reflected field from the target wherein the sine or cosine coil is configured such that an asymmetric reflected field from the target seen by the sine or cosine coil corresponds to an air gap between a surface of the target in relation to the main coil and the receive coil, wherein the receive coil is configured to provide a linear approximation of the target angle for short stroke movement of the target;
- a magnetic field sensing system to detect the angular position of the target using magnetic field sensing elements, wherein the target has a magnetic portion affecting the magnetic field sensing elements and a metallic portion in which the eddy currents are induced, and
- wherein the IC package is located in relation to the receive coil.
A method for redundant sensing using an IC package to determine angular position of a target, comprising:
- employing an inductive sensing system that comprises:
- a main coil to direct a magnetic field at the target for inducing eddy currents in the target;
- and
- a receive coil having a butterfly configuration, wherein the receive coil has sine and cosine coils for detecting a reflected field from the target wherein each of the sine and cosine coils is configured such that an asymmetric reflected field from the target seen by the sine and cosine coils corresponds to an air gap between a surface of the target in relation to the main coil and the receive coil;
- and
- employing a magnetic field sensing system to detect the angular position of the target using magnetic field sensing elements, wherein the target has a magnetic portion affecting the magnetic field sensing elements and a metallic portion in which the eddy currents are induced, and
- wherein the IC package is located in relation to the receive coil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.