Signal processing for a capacitive sensor system with robustness to noise

• US 9,678,192 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2016
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microchip Technology Germany GmbH (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Microchip Technology Germany GmbH (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hoch, Martin, Heim, Axel
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HOAI AN D
• Application Number:
  US15/063,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20160187450A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 Days
• Field of Search: 324600, 324603, 324658, 324686, 324519, 32475017
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/24 by varying capacitance
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/2605 Measuring capacitance capacitive sensors G01D5/24
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 35/005 Calibrating; Standards or reference devices, e.g. voltage or resistance standards, "golden" references G01R33/0035, G01R35/002 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0445 using two or more layers of sensing electrodes, e.g. using two layers of electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/962 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/9607 Capacitive touch switches

Abstract

A capacitive sensor includes a transmit electrode configured to provide an alternating electric field to a sensor; one or more receive electrodes for detecting variations in the alternating electric field; and an adaptive frequency adjustment unit configured to adjust an operating frequency of the alternating electric field responsive to detection of a noise measure, such as noise power.

Claims

1. A capacitive sensor, comprising:

a transmit electrode configured to provide an alternating electric field for the capacitive sensor;

an oscillator generating a carrier signal;

one or more receive electrodes configured to detect variations in the alternating electric field;

an adaptive frequency adjustment unit coupled with the oscillator and configured to adjust an operating frequency of the alternating electric field responsive to detection of noise, wherein the carrier signal is modulated by an object entering the alternating electric field using amplitude modulation; and

an analog-to-digital converter configured to sample signals received from the one or more receive electrodes, wherein sampling is synchronized with the oscillator.

2. The capacitive sensor of claim 1, wherein the adaptive frequency adjustment unit is configured to perform a plurality of noise measurements at potential operating frequencies and select a new operating frequency.

3. The capacitive sensor of claim 2, wherein the new operating frequency corresponds to a minimum or maximum of the plurality of noise measurements.

4. The capacitive sensor of claim 2, wherein the new operating frequency corresponds to a sufficiently high or sufficiently low noise measurement of the plurality of noise measurements.

5. The capacitive sensor of claim 2, wherein the noise measurements comprise noise powers.

6. The capacitive sensor of claim 2, wherein the noise measurement is a measure for the noise at the operating frequency.

7. The capacitive sensor of claim 6, wherein the noise measurement is a measure for the noise power at the operating frequency.

8. The capacitive sensor of claim 1, wherein a sampling frequency of the analog-to-digital converter is twice the frequency of the carrier signal.

9. The capacitive sensor of claim 8, wherein the modulated carrier signal is synchronously demodulated and downsampled.

10. The capacitive sensor of claim 9, wherein the noise measurement is a measure of the signal energy of the downsampled signal in a frequency band that is to a large extend unequal the frequency band of the low-frequency modulating signal and to a large extend unequal frequency bands that contain low-frequency noise.

11. The capacitive sensor of claim 2, wherein the adaptive frequency adjustment unit is configured to select a new operating frequency if a detected noise measurement exceeds or falls below a predetermined threshold.

12. The capacitive sensor of claim 11, wherein the new operating frequency is an operating frequency that corresponds to a minimum or maximum of the plurality of noise measurements.

13. A method for providing noise robustness to a capacitive sensing system, comprising:

defining a plurality of potential operating transmit frequencies;

generating a carrier signal using one of the potential operating transmit frequencies;

operating the capacitive sensing system at the one of the plurality of potential operating transmit frequencies by feeding the carrier signal to a transmitting electrode thereby generating an alternating electric field;

modulating the alternating electric field by an object entering the electric field using amplitude modulation;

sampling signals received from the one or more receive electrodes, wherein sampling is synchronized with a selected operating transmit frequency;

performing an operating noise measurement at the operating frequency; and

selecting a new operating frequency responsive to a value of a measured operating noise.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the new operating frequency corresponds to a minimum or maximum of the plurality of noise measurements.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the new operating frequency corresponds to a sufficiently high or sufficiently low noise measurement of the plurality of noise measurements.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the operating noise measurement comprise noise powers.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the operating noise measurement is a measure for the noise at the operating frequency.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the operating noise measurement is a measure for the noise power at the operating frequency.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising converting an analog signal received from the one or more receive electrodes into a digital signal with a sampling frequency that is twice the frequency of the carrier signal.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein a modulated carrier signal is synchronously demodulated and downsampled.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the noise measurement is a measure of the signal energy of the downsampled signal in a frequency band that is to a large extend unequal the frequency band of the low-frequency modulating signal and to a large extend unequal frequency bands that contain low-frequency noise.

22. The method of claim 13, including selecting a new operating frequency if a detected noise measurement exceeds or falls below a predetermined threshold.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the new operating frequency is an operating frequency that corresponds to a minimum or maximum of the plurality of noise measurements.