Shaped non-contact capacitive displacement sensors for measuring shaped targets
AssigneeADE Corporation
InventorRoy E. Mallory
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved non-contact capacitive displacement sensor that may be employed for accurately measuring small distances between the sensor and shaped targets. The non-contact capacitive displacement sensor includes a probe having a sensor element and a guard element. The guard element substantially surrounds the sensor element. At least the sensor element has a shape that substantially matches the shape of a target element.
Claims18
A non-contact capacitive displacement sensor for measuring a distance to at least one target element, said target element having at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic, said non-contact capacitive displacement sensor comprising:
- at least one conductive sensor element, said conductive sensor element having at least one of a non-linear shaped surface and a non-planar shaped surface configured to conform to a contour of said at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic of said target element to be measured,
- thereby allowing a uniform distance to be maintained between the shaped surface of the sensor element and the shaped surface characteristic of the target element while the sensor element is disposed proximate to the target element.
A method of fabricating a non-contact capacitive displacement sensor, said non-contact capacitive displacement sensor being operative to measure a distance to at least one target element, said target element having at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a conductive sensor element;
- applying at least one non-conductive layer to a surface of the sensor element,
- thereby substantially surrounding the sensor element with the non-conductive layer;
- applying at least one conductive layer to a surface of the non-conductive layer,
- thereby substantially surrounding the non-conductive layer with the conductive layer;
- and
- shaping at least one surface of at least the sensor element to form at least one of a non-linear shaped surface and a non-planar shaped surface configured to conform to a contour of said at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic of said target element to be measured,
- thereby allowing a uniform distance to be maintained between the shaped surface of the sensor element and the shaped surface characteristic of the target element while the sensor element is disposed proximate to the target element.
A method of fabricating a non-contact capacitive displacement sensor, said non-contact capacitive displacement sensor being operative to measure a distance to at least one target element, said target element having at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a substrate;
- and
- disposing at least one conductive layer on the substrate,
- wherein the at least one conductive layer is patterned to form at least one sensor element on the substrate, and
- wherein the at least one sensor element has at least one of a non-linear shaped surface and a non-planar shaped surface configured to conform to a contour of said at least one of a non-linear shaped surface characteristic and a non-planar shaped surface characteristic of said target element to be measured,
- thereby allowing a uniform distance to be maintained between the shaped surface of the sensor element and the shaped surface characteristic of the target element while the sensor element is disposed proximate to the target element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.