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:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2001
Nicolò Manaresi, Bologna, IT;
Marco Tartagni, Meldola, IT;
Joel Monnier, Ismiere, FR;
Roberto Guerrieri, Bologna, IT;
STMicroelectronics S.r.l., Agrate Brianza, IT;
Abstract
A device for detecting the pressure exerted at different points of a flexible and/or pliable object that may assume different shapes, includes a plurality of capacitive pressure sensors and at least a system for biasing and reading the capacitance of the sensors. The requirements of flexibility or pliability are satisfied by capacitive pressure sensors formed by two orthogonal sets of parallel or substantially parallel electrodes spaced, at least at each crossing between an electrode of one set and an electrode of the other set, by an elastically compressible dielectric, forming an array of pressure sensing pixel capacitors. The system for biasing and reading the capacitance includes column plate electrode selection circuits and row plate electrode selection circuits and a logic circuit for sequentially scanning the pixel capacitors and outputting pixel values of the pressure for reconstructing a distribution map of the pressure over the area of the array.