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:
Aug. 13, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1998
George B. Yundt, Cambridge, MA (US);
Bradley A. Trago, Rockford, IL (US);
Robert E. Lordo, Tega Cay, SC (US);
Harry B. Behm, Lawrence, MA (US);
Pacsci Motion Control, Inc., Wilmington, MA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is an apparatus for indicating the instantaneous position of a movable member along a range of motion with respect to a reference position. The apparatus includes a magnetic body that is fixedly attached to the movable member. The body has a contoured surface to control the shape of a magnetic field relative to position, and further includes at least two magnetic field sensors. Each of the sensors is disposed adjacent to the contoured surface of the magnetic body and fixed with respect to the reference position, and is positioned apart from the other sensors, so as to form a non-uniform gap between the contoured surface and each of the magnetic field sensors. Each of the sensors produces a position dependent signal corresponding to a value of the magnetic field. The apparatus further includes a decoding circuit electrically coupled to each of the magnetic field sensors so as to receive each of the position dependent signals. The decoding circuit produces a position dependent signal that is a predetermined function of the position dependent signals. Multiple sensors can be utilized to provide redundancy. Further, the apparatus can provide measurement correction of measurement errors caused by incorrect location of the magnetic field sensors.