Autonomous self-aligning and self-calibrating capacitive sensor system

Conference paper (2012)

Authors

O.S. van de Ven Mechatronic Systems Design - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
D Yang Computational Design and Mechanics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
S. Xia Electronic Instrumentation - EEMCS
J.P. van Schieveen Mechatronic Systems Design - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
J.W. Spronck Mechatronic Systems Design - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
R.H. Munnig Schmidt Mechatronic Systems Design - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
S. Nihtianova Electronic Instrumentation - EEMCS
Research Group
Mechatronic Systems Design (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2012

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Precision and Microsystems Engineering

Research Group

Mechatronic Systems Design

Abstract

An autonomous capacitive sensor system for high accuracy and stability position measurement, such as required in high-precision industrial equipment, is presented. The system incorporates a self-alignment funcion based on a thermal stepping motor and a built-in capacitive reference, to guarantee that the relative position between the sensor electrodes is set to 10 ± 0.1µm. This is needed to achieve the performance specifications with the capacitive readout. In addition, an electronic zoom-in method is used to reach the 10 pm resolution with minimum power dissipation. Finally, periodic self-calibration of the electronic capacitance readout is realized using a very accurate and stable built-in resistive reference. The performance is evaluated experimentally and with simulations.

Keywords: Capacitive Sensor System, Position Measurement, Self Alignment, Self Calibration, Thermal Actuator