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:
Oct. 28, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 07, 1995
Richard Joseph Hampo, Livonia, MI (US);
David Lee Striker, Plymouth, MI (US);
William Henry Lee, Watsonville, CA (US);
Michael John Lee, Carmel, CA (US);
Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
A capacitive throttle position sensor includes an electrode board having at least three electrodes, a driver for selectively driving the electrodes, and a rotary member including a dielectric that provides capacitive path to an output electrode. Preferably, a logical driver provides incrementally sequenced charges to the driver electrodes. The output electrode is coupled to a signal processor that prepares the signal for comparison in a logical decoder with respect to an initiating driver electrode signal. Preferably, the phase difference between the output and input of the capacitive sensor provides an output signal which is not dependent upon the absolute capacitance of the element, and thus provides an output signal which can be adapted to a number of formats for motor vehicle control. Both two piece and three piece versions of the stationary and rotary parts are disclosed, and the capacitive gap may be axially or radially aligned between the stationary and rotary components.