Patent · US Active

High signal to noise ratio capacitive sensing analog front-end

US9389256B2 · kind B2 · utility

7Cited by
8References
30Claims
0Family size

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Key dates

Filing dateDec 18, 2012
Grant dateJul 12, 2016
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 3, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F3/0443
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Capacitance sensing circuits and methods are provided. The capacitance sensing circuit includes a capacitance-to-voltage converter configured to receive a signal from a capacitance to be sensed and to provide an output signal representative of the capacitance, an output chopper configured to convert the output signal of the capacitance-to-voltage converter to a sensed voltage representative of the capacitance to be sensed, an analog accumulator configured to accumulate sensed voltages during an accumulation period of NA sensing cycles and to provide an accumulated analog value, an amplifier configured to amplify the accumulated analog value, and an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the amplified accumulated analog value to a digital value representative of the capacitance to be sensed. The analog accumulator may include a low pass filter having a frequency response to filter wideband noise.

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