A MICROCONTROLLER-BASED SELF-CALIBRATION TECHNIQUE FOR A SMART CAPACITIVE ANGULAR-POSITION SENSOR

A self-calibration technique for capacitive position sensors, based on the use of a microcontroller is presented. This technique offers a go od trade-off between the memory size of the microcontroller and the al gorithmic complexity. The application of this technique for self-calib ration of the inaccuracy caused by the geometrical errors and pattern errors in a smart capacitive angular-position sensor is discussed. Thi s self-calibration technique doesn't need any accurate reference. Expe rimental results show that the self-calibration is relatively effectiv e in reducing the influences of the geometrical errors and pattern err ors of the sensor. The reduction of the inaccuracy of the smart capaci tive angular-position sensor amounts to more than a factor of two.