The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 2025
Filed:
Oct. 26, 2022
Medela Holding Ag, Baar, CH;
Natalie Stevens, McHenry, IL (US);
Martin Thüring, Merenschwand, CH;
James Keclik, McHenry, IL (US);
MEDELA HOLDING AG, Baar, CH;
Abstract
This disclosure generally relates to a capacitive sensor for determining a fluid level in a milk container. In one embodiment, the capacitive sensor may be attached to a milk container of a breast pump device. The breast pump may include a breast shield adapted to at least in part receive a breast of a lactating user, an aggregate for generating suction for expressing milk from the breast, a milk container () providing a reservoir () for the expressed milk, a capacitive sensor () adapted to generate a signal indicative of the filling level within the reservoir () and a controller () for controlling the aggregate () and processing the signal of the capacitive sensor (), wherein the capacitive sensor () includes at least two capacitive sensor elements () having a different sensitivity to a change of the filling level and a similar sensitivity to a conductive object touching the milk container ().