Sensors

Lecture (6)
Displacement sensors
(Cont.)
 4- Push-Pull displacement sensor
➢ Capacitive sensors consists of two parallel conductive plates of
the same profile with a gap between them.

➢ Capacitance is directly proportional to both:

1. Plates area.
2. Relative permittivity of dielectric material.

➢ and is inversely proportional to the distance separating the

plates.
➢ For parallel plates:

εo εr A
C=
d

εo : permittivity of free space.

εr : relative permittivity (dielectric constant).
A : overlapped area of plates.
d : distance between plates.
➢ A change in capacitance can be:

1. C decreases as
d increases.
2. Moving one of the
plates changes A.
(C increases as
A increases)
3. Changing the
dielectric material
changes εr .
(C increases as
εr increases)
➢ Changing the distance between the capacitive two plates:
➢ The capacitance of the capacitor is inversely proportional to the
distance between the plates. Hence used to determine the linear
displacement.
➢ One plate is fixed while the other is mobile (movable). So, with the
motion of the movable plate, the capacitance increases or
decreases depending on the displacement which is to be
measured.
➢ For d to increase by x, C decreases by ∆C:
εo εr A
∵C=
d
εo εr A
∴ C − ∆C =
d+x
➢ The sensitivity of the capacitor for change in distance is given as:
dC εo εr A
S= =−
dd d2

➢ To make this relationship linear, use push-pull displacement sensor.

➢ Consists of 3 plates: Plate P1 and P2 are fixed plates and M is the
movable plate to which the displacement to be measured is applied.
➢ Due to these 3 plates, two capacitor C1 and C2 are formed, where:
εo εr A
C1 =
d+x
εo εr A
C2 =
d−x
P1

P2
Example:

Consider a parallel rectangular plate air-spaced capacitor of

30cm*20cm and the distance between the plates is 1.2mm. If
the relative permittivity for air is 1.006, calculate the
displacement sensitivity of the device assuming that
permittivity of free space is 8.854×10-12 F/m.
Solution: εo εr A
C=
d
no. of plates = 2 A = 2 ∗ 30 ∗ 10−2 ∗ 20 ∗ 10−2 = 1200 ∗ 10−4
εo = 8.854×10-12 F/m
εr = 1.006 dC εo ε r A
Displacement sensitivity = S = = − 2
d = 1.2*10-3 m dd d

length = 30 ∗ 10−2 m
8.854 ∗ 10−12 ∗ 1.006 ∗ 1200 ∗ 10−4
width = 20 ∗ 10−2 m S=−
1.2 ∗ 10−3 2

= −7.383 ∗ 10−7 F/m

Position sensors
 Position sensors
➢ Sensors used to determine the physical position of an object with
respect to a reference point.

➢ The most commonly used position sensor is the optical encoder.

➢ This sensor produces angular position data directly in digital form.

➢ There are two types:

1. Incremental encoder.
2. Absolute encoder.
 1- Incremental encoder
➢ Only one track of equally spaced slots.

➢ A light beam from a light emitting diode led passes through the
slots in the disc and is detected by a light sensor.

➢ Position is determined by counting the number of light pulses

that pass through the slots.

➢ Velocity can be determined as the speed of the pulses.

➢ Resolution is proportional to the number of slots in the disk.

➢ For 60 slots:

360°
Movement from one slot to the next one (resolution) is = 6°
60

➢ For one thousand slots:

360°
Resolution is = 0.36°
1000
 2- Absolute encoder
➢ Uses a glass disk with concentric tracks.

➢ A separate light beam is sent through each track to an individual

light sensor.

➢ Each light sensor contributes 1 bit to the output digital word.

➢ Velocity can also be determined.

➢ Resolution is proportional to the number of tracks.

➢ If we have 8 tracks:

• Maximum number consists of 8 bit.

• Maximum position = 28 = 256
360°
• Resolution = = 1.406°
256

360°
➢ Resolution = where n is the number of tracks (bits)
2𝑛
➢ If the absolute encoder isn’t properly
aligned, it may report completely
erroneous data.

➢ The solution is to use gray code:

• Only one bit is changing between

any two sensors.
• The worst case is that bit can switch
early or late.