Methods and systems for sigma delta capacitance measuring...

Electricity: measuring and testing – Impedance – admittance or other quantities representative of... – Lumped type parameters

Reexamination Certificate

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C324S676000

Reexamination Certificate

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07977954

ABSTRACT:
Methods, systems and devices are described for detecting a measurable capacitance using sigma-delta charge transfer techniques that can be implemented with many standard microcontrollers, and can share components to reduce device complexity and improve performance. In the various implementations of this embodiment, the passive network used to accumulate charge can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. A switch or IO controlling the charge sharing and/or charge changing can also be shared Likewise, in various implementations a voltage conditioning circuit configured to provide a variable reference voltage can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. Finally, in various implementations a guarding electrode configured to guard the measurable capacitances can be shared between multiple measurable capacitances. In each of these cases, sharing components can reduce device complexity and improve performance.

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