Infineon Technologies Ag

Capital One Services, LLC

Constantin Crisu

Bernhard Winkler

Cesare Buffa

Alessandro Caspani

Victor Popescu-Stroe

Dan-Ioan-Dumitru Stoica

Franz Michael Darrer

Erhard Landgraf

Emanuel Stoicescu

Matthias Boehm

Stefan Jahn

Janis Weidenauer

Mihai-Liviu Tudose

Constantin Stroi

Vlad Buiculescu

Uwe Fakesch

Dan Ioan Dumitru Stoica

Matthias Böhm

A capacitive sensor includes a first conductive structure and a second conductive structure that form a first capacitor having a first capacitance that changes in response to an external force acting thereon and includes a MEMS output configured to output a first sense signal representative of the first capacitance; a second capacitor coupled to the MEMS output and configured to output a second sense signal based on the first sense signal; an amplifier comprising an amplifier input and configured to output an amplified signal based on the second sense signal; and a diagnostic circuit configured to receive two measurement signals, generate an offset measurement based on the two measurement signals, and detect a fault on a condition that the offset measurement is outside of a threshold range.

Diagnosis of electrical failures in capacitive sensors

A sensor circuit, having a startup phase and an operation phase, includes: a sensor configured to generate a sensor signal based on a measured property, wherein the sensor signal has a frequency spectrum defined by a first frequency and a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency; a signal processing circuit including an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to convert the sensor signal into a digital sensor signal; and an offset diagnosis circuit. The offset diagnosis circuit includes: a low pass filter having a cutoff frequency less than the first frequency and configured to generate a filtered signal based on the digital sensor signal; an offset register configured to store a startup signal value of the filtered signal during the startup phase; and an offset comparator circuit configured to set a threshold range based on the startup signal value for use during the operation phase.

Gain and offset diagnosis of analog-to-digital converters in sensor signal path

A capacitive sensor includes a first conductive structure; a second conductive structure that is counter to the first conductive structure, wherein the second conductive structure is movable relative to the first conductive structure in response to an external force acting thereon, wherein the second conductive structure is capacitively coupled to the first conductive structure to form a first capacitor having a first capacitance that changes with a change in a distance between the first conductive structure and second conductive structure; a signal generator configured to apply a first electrical signal step at an input or at an output of the first capacitor to induce a first voltage transient response at the output of first capacitor; and a diagnostic circuit configured to detect a fault in the capacitive sensor by measuring a first time constant of the first voltage transient response and detecting the fault based on the first time constant.

Detecting capacitive faults and sensitivity faults in capacitive sensors

A capacitive sensor includes a first electrode structure; a second electrode structure that is counter to the first electrode structure, wherein the second electrode structure is movable relative to the first electrode structure and is capacitively coupled to the first electrode structure to form a capacitor having a capacitance that changes with a change in a distance between the first electrode structure and second electrode structure; a signal generator configured to apply an electrical signal at an input or at an output of the capacitor to induce a voltage transient response at the output of capacitor; and a diagnostic circuit configured to detect a fault in the capacitive sensor by measuring a time constant of the first voltage transient response and detecting the fault based on the time constant and based on whether the first electrical signal is the pull-in signal or the non-pull-in signal.

Detecting sensitivity faults in capacitive sensors by using pull-in functionality

A capacitive sensor includes a first conductive structure; a second conductive structure movable relative to the first conductive structure in response to an external force acting thereon, wherein the first and the second conductive structures form a first capacitor having a first capacitance that changes with a change in a distance between the first conductive structure and second conductive structure, wherein the first capacitance is representative of the external force; and a diagnostic circuit configured to detect a first leakage current in the capacitive sensor by measuring an first electrical parameter that is affected by the first leakage current and comparing the measured first electrical parameter to a first predetermined error threshold, wherein the diagnostic circuit is further configured to generate a first error signal in response to the measured first electrical parameter being greater than the first predetermined error threshold.

Examples provide for an apparatus, method, and computer program for comparing the output of sensor cells in an arrangement of sensor cells in an area A, including a set of at least two measurement units. A measurement unit includes at least two sensor cells, wherein at least one sensor cell of at least one measurement unit includes a sensitive sensor cell, which is sensitive with respect to a measured quantity. The sensor cells are intermixed with each other. The apparatus further includes means for selecting output signals of sensor cells of the arrangement and means for determining a measured quantity or determining an intact sensor cell by comparing output signals of different measurement units.

Apparatus, method, and computer program for comparing the output of sensor cells

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Bucharest, Romania

Constantin Crisu