RF proximity sensor
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsGerald DeJean, Trang Thai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sensor has a strip resonator filter that energizes an emitter patch which emits an electric field out from the strip resonator filter (away from the strip resonator filter). The capacitance of the filter, or specifically the coupling capacitance and radiation pattern of the slotted patch, is altered when an object such as a finger is near the sensor. Resulting changes in a signal outputted by the filter can be used to determine how close the object is to the sensor. The strip resonator filter may be a half wavelength strip resonator coupled filter having three separate strips. The patch may have a slot and two accompanying strips. An arrangement of multiple sensors may detect the position of an object in two or three dimensions.
Claims17
A method comprising:
- obtaining measures of a signal feature from a proximity sensor at times, respectively, while an object is sufficiently close to the proximity sensor to affect the measures of the signal feature, wherein the proximity sensor comprises, in order of stack arrangement:
- a conductively isolated patch filter, a first substrate, a strip filter, and a ground plane, wherein a driving signal drives the strip filter and the signal feature measures are obtained from the strip filter;
- and
- determining distances of the object from the proximity sensor corresponding to the times, respectively, according to the respective measures of the signal feature.
An apparatus comprising:
- a proximity sensor comprising, in order of stack arrangement:
- a conductively isolated patch filter, a first substrate, a strip filter, and a ground plane;
- a power source configured to provide a driving signal to drive the strip filter;
- a measurement circuit configured to obtain measures of a signal feature from the proximity sensor at times, respectively, while an object is sufficiently close to the proximity sensor to affect the measures of the signal feature;
- and
- a distance calculating circuit configured to determine distances of the object relative to the proximity sensor, the distances respectively corresponding to the times, the distances calculated according to the respective measures of the signal feature.
An apparatus comprising:
- a proximity sensor comprising, in order of stack arrangement:
- a conductively isolated patch filter, a first substrate, a strip filter, and a ground plane;
- a power source configured to provide a driving signal to drive the strip filter;
- and
- a measurement circuit configured to obtain measures of a signal feature of a signal from the proximity sensor at respective times while an object is sufficiently close to the proximity sensor to affect the measures of the signal feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.