Surface capacitance sensor system using buried stimulus electrode
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A capacitance sensor device comprising:
- a semiconductor integrated circuit;
a sensor electrode array arranged in a two dimensional array of n rows and m columns;
a stimulus electrode array arranged in a one dimensional array of n rows;
a quantity of n time-varying voltage sources connected to n rows of stimulus electrodes;
a quantity of m time-varying voltmeters; and
a quantity of m blocks of n switches that allows the connection of one of the n sensor electrodes along a column to one time-varying voltmeter.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A surface capacitance sensor system is implemented as an array of sensor electrodes near the surface of the integrated circuit and an array of stimulus electrodes below the sensor electrodes. Rows of stimulus electrodes are driven by sources while the voltages at the respective sensor electrodes are measured. Voltage measurements at each sensor electrode allow the surface capacitance at each sensor electrode location to be determined. The capacitance data is used to determine the positions of target electrodes above the array surface as required in the location fingerprint artifacts.
-
Citations
5 Claims
-
1. A capacitance sensor device comprising:
-
a semiconductor integrated circuit;
a sensor electrode array arranged in a two dimensional array of n rows and m columns;
a stimulus electrode array arranged in a one dimensional array of n rows;
a quantity of n time-varying voltage sources connected to n rows of stimulus electrodes;
a quantity of m time-varying voltmeters; and
a quantity of m blocks of n switches that allows the connection of one of the n sensor electrodes along a column to one time-varying voltmeter. - View Dependent Claims (2)
-
-
3. A capacitance sensor device comprising:
-
an integrated circuit;
a two-dimensional sensor electrode array having n rows×
m columns of electrodes;
a stimulus electrode array arranged in a one dimensional array of n rows;
a plurality of n time-varying voltage sources connected to n rows of stimulus electrodes;
a plurality of m time-varying voltmeters; and
a plurality of m blocks of n switches that allows the connection of one of the n sensor electrodes along a column to one time-varying voltmeter. - View Dependent Claims (4)
-
-
5. A capacitive sensor device of the type having MOS circuit devices, sensor electrodes and stimulus electrodes, said capacitive sensor device characterized in that there are no MOS circuit devices beneath or between any sensor or stimulus electrode.
Specification