Motorola Corporation

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC

Stephen John Sheard

Thomas Michael King

Takayasu Otagaki

Tetsuya Tokunaga

Kazuyoshi Ishikawa

In accordance with at least one embodiment, a method for detecting a liquid level includes providing a container () having a cavity, and disposing a sensor () in the cavity of the container (), such that a ground pattern () on a first surface of the sensor () is positioned to contact a liquid in the cavity. A first electrode () and a second electrode () are located on a second surface of the sensor (). The sensor () is coupled to a sensor input and a sensor driver. A cable coupling the sensor () to a touch sensor () comprises a shield line () that is coupled to ground.

Capacitance liquid level sensor

A master control station (10) includes a common antenna (12) which drives two, unsynchronized multi-channel GPS receivers (16, 18). The two receivers (16, 18) couple to a controller (24). The controller (24) commands the receivers (16, 18) to identify all GPS satellites in view, and then assigns (48) satellites to various channels in the receivers (16, 18). The assignment includes at least one common satellite between the two receivers. Location data are obtained from the two receivers for the common satellite and used to normalize (66) all pseudorange data from all channels to compensate for the lack of synchronization between the two receivers (16, 18). Differential GPS location resolution (84) may then occur using the normalized data.

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Tempe, AZ, United States of America

Stephen John Sheard