Contactless distance sensor and method for carrying out a contactless distance measurement

Abstract

The present invention relates to a distance sensor suitable for calculating a processed distance of a target object without contact, including: a contactless measuring circuit suitable for emitting an output signal proportional to the distance of said target object for a plurality of time intervals, so as to obtain a plurality of measurements of the distance of said target object without contact; a first processor circuit suitable for processing said output signals coming from said measuring circuit, so as to calculate a first average distance from said target object based on the average of N distance measurements in output coming from said measuring circuit, said N measurements being consecutive in time and including the last distance measurement emitted by said measuring circuit; a second processor circuit suitable for processing said output signals coming from said measuring circuit, so as to calculate a second average distance from said target object based on the average of M distance measurements in output coming from said measuring circuit, said M measurements being a subset of said N measurements with M<N, consecutive in time and including the last distance measurement emitted by said measuring circuit; a first comparator circuit suitable for calculating a first difference between a value function of said first average distance and a value function of said second average distance; and a third processor circuit suitable for comparing said first difference with a first threshold and for emitting in output a processed distance value, said processed distance value being equal to a value function of said first average distance if said first difference is less than or equal to said first threshold, or being equal to a value function of said last distance measurement emitted by said measuring circuit otherwise. Furthermore, the invention relates to an operating method of said sensor.