Wacoh Corporation

Other

Nobumitsu Taniguchi

Kazuhiro Okada

Hideo Morimoto

Hiromichi Itano

Shigeo Takagi

The invention provides a force detector in which power consumption is suppressed. Four electrodes Ethrough Eare formed on a substrate, and an elastic deformable body formed of a rubber film is disposed thereon. A conductive coating is applied on the lower surface of the elastic deformable body to provide a displacing conductive layer. Four capacitance elements Cthrough Care comprised by the electrodes Ethrough Eand the displacing conductive layeropposed to the electrodes. The capacitance values thereof are converted into voltage values Vthrough Vby C/V converter circuit, and based on operation by signal processing circuit, an external force applied to the elastic deformable body is detected. A pair of contacting electrodes Eand Eare formed on the substrate, and when an external force with a predetermined strength or more is applied, the elastic deformable body deforms, and the displacing conductive layercomes into contact with both electrodes Eand E, simultaneously. The potential of the electrode Eis taken-in from the terminal T, and when said potential is Vcc, the C/V converter circuitis operated in a standby mode with less power consumption, and when said potential is GND, the circuit is operated in a normal mode.

Force detector

An efficient rotational-operation-quantity input device suitable to be built into a small electrical appliance is provided. An operational force applied by an operator is input in time series as a coordinate value (x, y) in an XY two-dimensional rectangular coordinate system by a two-dimensional force sensor, and is converted into a coordinate value (r, &#x3b8;) by a polar-coordinate converting sectionWhen a value r of the coordinate value (r, &#x3b8;) obtained in time series is larger than a predetermined threshold rt, an operation-quantity recognizing sectionrecognizes the coordinate value (r, &#x3b8;) as a significant coordinate value, and, when the value &#x3b8; generates a variation &#x394;&#x3b8; exceeding a predetermined threshold &#x3b8;t with respect to a value '&#x3b8; before' immediately therebefore during a period during which a significant coordinate value (r, &#x3b8;) is obtained continuously, it recognizes a value corresponding to the variation &#x394;&#x3b8; as an operation quantity indicating a rotation.

Input device of rotational operation quantity and operating device using this

The invention provides a force detector in which power consumption is suppressed. Four electrodes (E -E ) are formed on a substrate, and an elastic deformable body formed of a ruber film is disposed thereon. A conductive coating is applied on the lower surface of the elastic deformable body to provide a displacing conductive layer ( ). Four capacitance elements (C -C ) are comprised by the electrodes (E -E ) and the displacing conductive layer ( ) opposed to the electrodes. The capacitance values thereof are converted into voltage values (V -V ) by C/V converter circuit ( ), and based on operation by signal processing circuit ( ), an external force applied to the elastic deformable body is detected. A pair of contacting electrodes (E ) and (E ) are formed on the substrate, and when an external force with a predetermined strength or more is applied, the elastic deformable body deforms, and the displacing conductive layer ( ) comes into contact with both electrodes (E ) and (E ). The potential of the electrode (E ) is taken-in from the terminal (T ), and when said potential is Vcc, the C/V converter circuit ( ) is operated in a standby mode with less power consumption, and when said potential is GND, the circuit is operated in a normal mode.

An intermediate displacement board ( ) composed of a metal plate is arranged on a printed circuit board ( ) having electrode patterns (E -E ) and then a strain generative body ( ) composed of silicon rubber is arranged on top thereof. Then, the arrangement is fixed to the printed circuit board ( ) with attachments ( ). Depressing a displacement portion ( ) causes a connecting portion ( ) to be deflected and an electrode (F ) to be brought into contact with the electrodes (E , E ) to make them conductive, thereby allowing the pushbutton switch to be turned ON. Depressing further the displacement portion ( ) causes an elastic deformation portion ( ) to be elastically deformed and crushed and the intermediate displacement board ( ) to be pushed downward. The capacitance of capacitors (C -C ), which are constituted by the electrodes (E -E ) and the intermediate displacement board ( ), are varied according to the depression of the intermediate displacement board ( ). By detecting the variation in capacitance, it becomes possible to detect three-dimensional components of an applied force.

Force sensor

A bottom fixed layer , displacement layer , and top fixed layer are fixed in a layered structure by way of intervening pedestals , which serve as spacers between the layers. The bottom and top fixed layers are rigid dielectric substrates. The displacement layer is a flexible conductive substrate. On the top of the bottom fixed layer are formed an electrode E on the right, electrode E on the left, and a washer-shaped electrode E in the middle. On the bottom of the top fixed layer are formed an electrode E on the right, electrode E on the left, and a washer-shaped electrode E in the middle. These electrodes and the displacement layer together form capacitance elements C to C . When acceleration acts on the working body , the displacement layer is displaced and a change in capacitance occurs in various capacitance elements. The X-axis acceleration component can then be calculated as (C &plus;C ) -(C &plus;C ), and the Z-axis acceleration component can be calculated as C -C

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Ageo, Japan

Nobumitsu Taniguchi