Capacitive coupling based sensor
AssigneeSilego Technology, Inc.
InventorsJozef Froniewski, Jay Li, Cheng-Hao Chen, Yinn-Jang Wu
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Abstract
A capacitive coupling based sensor is disclosed. In some embodiments, a sensor comprises a transmitter and a receiver that are configured to be capacitively coupled when a coupling condition is satisfied as well as a circuit configured to determine whether a received signal that is received by the receiver matches a transmitted signal that is transmitted by the transmitter.
Claims20
A sensor, comprising:
- a first transmitter and a first receiver configured to be capacitively coupled when a first passive coupler is in proximity to the first transmitter and the first receiver;
- a second transmitter and a second receiver configured to be capacitively coupled when a second passive coupler is in proximity to the second transmitter and the second receiver;
- and
- an integrated circuit coupled to the transmitters and the receivers configured to determine whether a signal transmitted by the first transmitter is received by the first receiver and an inverted version of the signal transmitted by the second transmitter is received by the second receiver;
- wherein at least one of the first passive coupler and the second passive coupler comprises a plurality of portions that are not adjacently situated.
A method for providing a sensor, comprising:
- configuring a first transmitter and a first receiver to be capacitively coupled when a first passive coupler is in proximity to the first transmitter and the first receiver;
- configuring a second transmitter and a second receiver to be capacitively coupled when a second passive coupler is in proximity to the second transmitter and the second receiver;
- and
- configuring an integrated circuit coupled to the transmitters and the receivers to determine whether a signal transmitted by the first transmitter is received by the first receiver and an inverted version of the signal transmitted by the second transmitter is received by the second receiver;
- wherein at least one of the first passive coupler and the second passive coupler comprises a plurality of portions that are not adjacently situated.
A computer program product for providing a sensor, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
- configuring a first transmitter and a first receiver to be capacitively coupled when a first passive coupler is in proximity to the first transmitter and the first receiver;
- configuring a second transmitter and a second receiver to be capacitively coupled when a second passive coupler is in proximity to the second transmitter and the second receiver;
- and
- configuring an integrated circuit coupled to the transmitters and the receivers to determine whether a signal transmitted by the first transmitter is received by the first receiver and an inverted version of the signal transmitted by the second transmitter is received by the second receiver;
- wherein at least one of the first passive coupler and the second passive coupler comprises a plurality of portions that are not adjacently situated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.