Signal processing for capacitive angular position sensors by the discrete Fourier transform

This paper presents a new approach for the evaluation of the signals of robust capacitive angular position sensors. Previously developed sensors used a ratiometric algorithm to calculate the angular position from the signals of the sensors' segments. Applying the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) to the signals of the sensor leads to an increased resolution and accuracy. This is demonstrated by comparing the results from both algorithms applied to simulated data and to data taken from measurement.