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. 23, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 12, 1999
A. John Santos, Farmington, CT (US);
Mark E. LaCroix, New Hartford, CT (US);
Pascal Desbiolles, Biauvy, FR;
The Torrington Company, Torrington, CT (US);
Abstract
A method for determining position and/or direction of a target, where the target has a series of magnetic poles with a magnetic pole spacing d. The method includes the steps of: (A) providing an array of an even number N of magnetic sensors with a sensor spacing x, the sensor array having an initial effective sensor array length (N+1)x, where the initial effective sensor array length is greater than the pole spacing d; (B) deactivating an equal number of magnetic sensors such that the magnetic sensors of the array remaining active are adjacent to each other and provide a new effective sensor array length that is closer to the pole spacing d than the initial effective sensor array length; (C) dividing the magnetic sensors of the array remaining active into two equal groups A and B of at least one adjacent magnetic sensor for signal processing; (D) summing the signals from group A and summing the signals from group B; (E) adding the summation of signals from group B to the summation of signals from group A to obtain a sine wave; and (F) subtracting the summation of signals from group B from the summation of signals from group A to obtain a cosine wave.