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:
Mar. 18, 2008
Filed:
Apr. 03, 2006
Divyasimha Harish, Union City, CA (US);
William D. Dallenbach, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
King Wong, Saratoga, CA (US);
John Schultz, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Divyasimha Harish, Union City, CA (US);
William D. Dallenbach, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
King Wong, Saratoga, CA (US);
John Schultz, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Loadstar Sensors, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-zone capacitive force sensing apparatus/method is disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes one or more capacitors each having an upper conductive surface and a lower conductive surface substantially parallel to the upper conductive surface, a housing with a top plate and a bottom plate to encompass the capacitors, and a sensor in the housing to generate a measurement based on a change in a distance between the upper conductive surface and the lower conductive surface of each of the capacitors when a contact zone of the top plate associated with the each of the plurality of capacitors is deflected by a force applied on the contact zone. The apparatus may also include a comparison module associated with the sensor to generate a signal indicating unevenness of a force applied on the top plate when there is any significant difference between measurements of the capacitors.