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:
Nov. 06, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 12, 2000
Josef Osterweil, Rockville, MD (US);
Other;
Abstract
An apparatus and method of proximity switch/sensor based generally on a balanceable magnetic pole array. The magnetic pole array contains at least four poles with optional ferromagnetic shunt(s). The proximity of a shunt to a magnetic pole array determines whether the array is balanced or unbalanced. A balanced array is one with a zone where the vector sum of magnetic fields emanating from the array's poles can be made to approach zero. A sensor such as a reed switch is placed in the balanced zone. When the balance of the array is disturbed by the application of one or multiple shunts, the resulting finite magnetic field vector along with the resulting magnetic flux, activates the sensor. This approach can be implemented in a variety of array structures that offer implementation of a variety of logical functions. Multiple shunts and their proximity to the array are used as the logical function's inputs and the sensor's state as the logical function's output.