A planar capacitive sensor for angular measurement

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach for the design of capacitive angular position and angular speed sensors. The idea is to combine the transmitter and receiver plates into a single sensor plane. This approach allows us to reduce the number of sensor components to a single sensor PCB-with transmitter, receiver, and sensor electronics-and the rotor. Another advantage is the easy mounting procedure if one end of the rotating axle is accessible. A prototype of this sensor has been developed with a measurement range of 180/spl deg/ with an uncertainty below 0.20.