An Analog-Digital Mixed Measurement Method of Inductive Proximity Sensor

• Main Authors: Yi-Xin Guo, Zhi-Biao Shao, Ting Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2015-12-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: inductive proximity sensor; analog-digital mixed measurement method; two-dimensional look-up table; built-in self-test; position detection
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/1/30

Inductive proximity sensors (IPSs) are widely used in position detection given their unique advantages. To address the problem of temperature drift, this paper presents an analog-digital mixed measurement method based on the two-dimensional look-up table. The inductance and resistance components can be separated by processing the measurement data, thus reducing temperature drift and generating quantitative outputs. This study establishes and implements a two-dimensional look-up table that reduces the online computational complexity through structural modeling and by conducting an IPS operating principle analysis. This table is effectively compressed by considering the distribution characteristics of the sample data, thus simplifying the processing circuit. Moreover, power consumption is reduced. A real-time, built-in self-test (BIST) function is also designed and achieved by analyzing abnormal sample data. Experiment results show that the proposed method obtains the advantages of both analog and digital measurements, which are stable, reliable, and taken in real time, without the use of floating-point arithmetic and process-control-based components. The quantitative output of displacement measurement accelerates and stabilizes the system control and detection process. The method is particularly suitable for meeting the high-performance requirements of the aviation and aerospace fields.