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:
Jan. 05, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 25, 1997
Eric C Beishline, Marlborough, MA (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A potentiometric position sensor (16, 40) is shown having first and second electrical contact wipers (24, 26; 24', 26') mechanically coupled to the control rod (14) of an automotive manual transmission. An electrical resistive circuit is formed on a flexible substrate (28, 28') which is mounted on the inside cylindrical surface (28a, 46a) of a housing (18, 46). The first contact wiper is adapted to wipe over a first set of resistive elements (28a, 28b, 28c; 28a', 28b', 28c') and the second contact wiper is adapted to wipe over a second set of resistive elements (28f, 28g, 28h; 28f', 28g', 28h) to provide unique analog voltage outputs dependent upon the position of the control rod along a translational and rotational axis (14a). In one embodiment the contact wipers (24, 26) are mounted on a rotor (22) which in turn is mounted directly on the control rod (14). In a second embodiment the contact wipers (24', 26') are mounted on a rotor (42) which is mechanically coupled to the control rod (14) via a ball and socket mechanism (48a, 50a).