Title :
The application of the capacitor´s physics to optimize capacitive angular-position sensors
Author :
Li, Xiujun ; De Jong, Gerben ; Meijer, Gerard C M
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Delft Univ. of Technol., Netherlands
fDate :
2/1/1997 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The distributions of the potential and charge density in a capacitive angular-position sensor with three electrode disks in an axis-symmetrical configuration have been found by creating a suitable physical model and solving Laplace\´s equation. The influences of geometrical parameters on the nonlinearity, which originates from the electric-field-bending effect, are discussed in detail for a capacitive angular-position sensor. The approximately analytical results are verified by a numerical analysis and are found to be very useful to predict the influences of geometrical nonidealities. The calculations are experimentally verified by using a novel, absolute angular-position sensor with a nonlinearity of less than ±17" and ±50" over measurement ranges of 15° and 90°, respectively
Keywords :
angular measurement; capacitance measurement; electric fields; electric sensing devices; numerical analysis; optimisation; position measurement; Laplace equation; absolute angular-position sensor; axis-symmetrical configuration; capacitive angular-position sensor; capacitive angular-position sensors; capacitor; charge density; distributions; electric field bending; electric-field-bending effect; geometrical nonidealities; geometrical parameters; nonlinearity; numerical analysis; physical model; position measurement; three electrode disks; Capacitance measurement; Capacitive sensors; Electrodes; Energy consumption; Laplace equations; Nonlinear equations; Numerical analysis; Physics; Position measurement; Solid modeling;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on
