A rotation angle measuring apparatus and method are provided for measuring a rotation angle of a moving disk relative to a stationary disk, the moving disk being configured to rotate about an axis and the stationary disk being arranged opposite the moving disk. A magnet is arranged on the moving disk. A first magnetic sensor is arranged on the stationary disk, the first magnetic sensor generating an angle signal under the action of the magnet as the moving disk rotates. An incremental rotation angle of the moving disk is determined on the basis of an output of the receiving region, a period of the static electric field is determined on the basis of an angle signal generated by the first magnetic sensor, and an absolute rotation angle of the moving disk is determined on the basis of the period of the static electric field and the incremental rotation angle.

A rotary actuator assembly includes a rotary actuator having a rotary body on a capacitively-sensing detection surface of the touch panel. A sensor ring coupled to the rotary body includes on a first ring surface includes alternately arranged contact surfaces and insulating surfaces and on a second ring surface includes a circumferential metal surface that is electrically connected to the contact surfaces. A sliding contact includes a contact pad and a contact spring connected together. The contact pad forms an electrical contact point fixed at a position of the detection surface. The contact spring contacts the contact surfaces and the insulating surfaces in alternation as the sensor ring rotates with rotation of the rotary body whereby a variable electrical signal is generated at the contact point. The electrical signal is detectable by the touch panel and the touch panel includes a mutual capacitance touch sensor assembly.

Example capacitive-sensing rotary encoders and methods are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes a rotary encoder structured to be mounted to a motor, the rotary encoder including a plurality of circumferential capacitive sensor arrays, each of the plurality of capacitive sensor arrays having an output representing a binary bit of a rotary encoder output, the rotary encoder output changing as a conductor rotates responsive to a rotatable shaft of the motor relative to the rotary encoder.

An encoder is provided that is capable of suppressing accuracy deterioration even if a scale is disposed in a tilted manner with respect to a receiving unit by being rotated around an axis (i.e., a rotation axis) orthogonal to a receiving surface. The encoder 1 includes scale 2 and detection head 3. The detection head 3 includes light source (transmitting unit) 4 and light-receiving unit (receiving unit) 5. The light-receiving unit includes light-receiving surface (receiving surface) 50 and converts light received at the light-receiving surface 50 into differential detection signals with two phases and outputs the same. The light-receiving surface 50 includes element array group 7 including four element arrays 71-74 provided in a parallel manner along an orthogonal direction, with each element array 71-74 including a plurality of light-receiving elements (receiving elements) 500. The plurality of element arrays 71-74 in the element array group 7 are disposed at positions where the sum of: (i) a distance in the orthogonal direction from a reference position to a positive phase signal element array 71, 72; and (ii) a distance in the orthogonal direction from the reference position to the negative phase signal element array 73, 74, is the same for all the phases of the at least two phases.

An absolute encoder configured to, when a rotation range of a measurement target member is limited by a brake mechanism, generate an AB-phase signal and a Z-phase signal for calculating a rotation angle of the measurement target member. The absolute encoder includes a brake mechanism, a plurality of Z-phase-signal-detection-target portions each having a Z-phase-signal-rise-detection-target portion and a Z-phase-signal-fall-detection-target portion, a plurality of AB-phase-signal-detection-target portions each located between a Z-phase-signal-rise-detection-target portion and a Z-phase-signal-fall-detection-target portion that are adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction, to thereby form a plurality of restriction ranges each including at least one of the Z-phase-signal-rise-detection-target portions and at least one of the Z-phase-signal-fall-detection-target portions. An interval in the circumferential direction between a Z-phase-signal-rise-detection-target portion and a Z-phase-signal-fall-detection-target portion that are adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction is different among the plurality of restriction ranges.

Described example user interface control apparatus includes a first structure, with a first side, conductive capacitor plate structures spaced along a first direction on the first side, a movable second structure with an auxiliary conductive structure, and an interface circuit to provide excitation signals to, and receive sense signals from, the conductive capacitor plate structures to perform a mutual capacitance test and a self-capacitance test of individual ones of the conductive capacitor plate structures to determine a position of the second structure or a user's finger relative to the first structure along the first direction.

A sensor device has a clock generator, a counter, an exciter device, a sensor element and an evaluation device, and outputs a sensor signal in response to a request signal having alternating leading and trailing edges. The counter reading is incremented differently, depending on whether the request signal has a leading/trailing edge between two successive leading or trailing edges of the clock signal. If the request signal has such a leading/trailing edge the counter corrects the counter reading. The value of the excitation signal outputted by the exciter device depends on the counter reading or a value derived therefrom. The sensor element outputs based on the excitation signal a raw signal, which is supplied to the evaluation device. The evaluation device determines based on this information whether to acquire the raw signal and how to take the raw signal into account when establishing the sensor signal.

A position sensor includes first and second sensor components. The second sensor component has a reading unit that is configured to evaluate a capacitive signal in relation to the position of the second sensor component relative to the first sensor component. The position sensor is in addition configured to provide the result of the evaluation at an interface of the first sensor component. A method for ascertaining a position of a second sensor component of a position sensor relative to a first sensor component of the position sensor as well as a linear actuator, are provided.

A phase detector includes a sampling signal generator configured to generate a sampling signal at an edge of a scale signal, a counter configured to count up a count value according to a clock pulse every certain time and to output the count value at a timing instructed by the sampling signal, an edge polarity determinator configured to determine whether an edge polarity of the scale signal is a rising edge or a falling edge and to generate an adjustment signal when the polarity of the edge where the sampling signal is generated is a falling edge and an adjuster configured to add a predetermined adjustment amount to the count value output from the counter when receiving the adjustment signal.

A rotary actuator assembly includes a rotary actuator having a rotary body on a capacitively-sensing detection surface of the touch panel. A sensor ring coupled to the rotary body includes on a first ring surface includes alternately arranged contact surfaces and insulating surfaces and on a second ring surface includes a circumferential metal surface that is electrically connected to the contact surfaces. A sliding contact includes a contact pad and a contact spring connected together. The contact pad forms an electrical contact point fixed at a position of the detection surface. The contact spring contacts the contact surfaces and the insulating surfaces in alternation as the sensor ring rotates with rotation of the rotary body whereby a variable electrical signal is generated at the contact point. The electrical signal is detectable by the touch panel and the touch panel includes a mutual capacitance touch sensor assembly.