Steering position sensor and method for using the same

A rotational position sensor comprising:

• a transmitting coil assembly configured to generate a magnetic field based on an excitation signal having a first phase value, wherein the magnetic field is a sinusoidally time-varying dipole near-field;
• a receiving coil assembly configured to detect the magnetic field generated by the transmitting coil assembly and to generate a reception signal having a second phase value varying from the first phase value according to rotation of one or the other or both of the transmitting and receiving coil assemblies relative to the other of the receiving and transmitting coil assemblies, respectively;
• wherein at least one of the transmitting and receiving coil assemblies includes two or more transmitting or receiving coils, respectively:
• where the transmitting coil assembly includes two or more transmitting coils, the magnetic field generated by the transmitting coil assembly includes respective magnetic field components generated by each of the transmitting coils, and the magnetic field component generated by each of the transmitting coils has an amplitude and phase shift relative to the other magnetic field components such that the magnetic field is a rotating magnetic dipole near-field whose rotation angle increases directly as the first phase value, and
• where the receiving coil assembly includes two or more receiving coils, the reception signal includes component reception signals generated by each of the receiving coils, and each of the component reception signals is weighted and phase-shifted such that the reception signal is the same as the reception signal generated by two virtual receiving coils the axes of which are 90 degrees apart, and the reception signal is the equally weighted sum of respective component reception signals generated by each of the two virtual receiving coils, the two component signals being phase-shifted 90 degrees relative to each other before summing;
• and
• a phase detector coupled with the transmitting and receiving coil assemblies and configured to measure a difference between the first and second phase values, and determine one or more of the rotational position of the transmitting coil assembly relative to the receiving coil assembly or the rotational position of the receiving coil assembly relative to the transmitting coil assembly based on the difference in phase value.