Patent · US Expired

Capacitive rotary position encoder

US5736865A · kind A · utility

25Cited by
3References
7Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 16, 1996
Grant dateApr 7, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 16, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01D5/2415
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A circuit board has an arcuate array of conductor segments each subject to a digital waveform differing in phase for the various segments, and a concentric pickup conductor. A rotary encoder disk has a conductive pattern which sums and couples the waveforms from selected segments, depending on rotary position, to the pickup conductor. A synchronous phase detector generates a phase signal from the summed waveforms and the zero crossing of the phase signal is detected. A counter develops count signals used to generate the digital waveforms. The count signals are input to a latch which is clocked at the zero crossing point to latch the count value which is a digital measure of the encoder angle.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.