JP2009058312A - Pressure distribution detector and object detector using electromagnetic coupling - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pressure distribution detector using electromagnetic coupling capable of reducing a cost by reducing the number of wiring, improving reliability, and reducing an excessive region other than a detection region. <P>SOLUTION: The pressure detector includes: a plurality of pieces of drive side loop-like wiring 20; a plurality of pieces of detection side loop-like wiring 30 arranged in a direction orthogonal to them; a plurality of electromagnetic coupling parts 36 composed so as to electromagnetically couple them respectively; a drive part 40 for driving the plurality of the pieces of the drive side loop-like wiring; and a detecting part 50 for detecting change of a degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling part 36 from the plurality of the pieces of the detection side loop-like wiring 30. The plurality of the pieces of the drive side loop-like wiring 20 and the plurality of the pieces of the detection side loop-like wiring 30 have common ground wires 25, 35 to share adjacent wires between the pieces of the adjacent loop-like wiring as ground wires. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a pressure distribution detection device and an object detection device using electromagnetic coupling, and more particularly to a pressure distribution detection device and an object detection device with a reduced number of wires.

  As a pressure distribution detection device using electromagnetic coupling, there are Patent Document 1, Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-011748, Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-194895, Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-231225, etc. by the same inventor as the present inventor. Further, as an object detection apparatus that measures the shape of an object using electromagnetic coupling, there is Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-169145 by the same inventor as the present inventor. Each of them uses a plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings and detection-side loop-like wirings as a basic configuration, and a coil-like electromagnetic coupling part or an electromagnetic coupling part by a conductor piece is provided so that they are electromagnetically coupled respectively. The pressure distribution, the shape of the object, and the like can be detected by detecting the degree of change of the electromagnetic coupling of these electromagnetic coupling units by the detection unit.

  Of course, a wiring such as a lead wire can be used for wiring in the detection region of these conventional detection devices. However, patterning the wiring on the substrate is advantageous for mass production. Here, the wiring of the conventional pressure distribution detection device will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic top view for explaining an example of a conventional pressure distribution detection device. As shown in the drawing, the sensor unit is configured by arranging the driving side loop-like wiring 2 and the detection side loop-like wiring 3 on both surfaces of the substrate 1 not using the through holes. The connection from the sensor unit to the controller 6 having the drive unit 4, the detection unit 5, and the like is configured to be pulled out via a connector 7 provided on the substrate 1.

JP 2005-156474 A

  In the conventional detection apparatus configured as shown in FIG. 1, the number of connector poles increases according to the number of loop-shaped wires. Increasing the number of loop-shaped wires in order to increase the spatial resolution of the detection device leads to an increase in the number of connectors as it is, which may cause an increase in cost and a decrease in reliability.

  Furthermore, since the driving side loop-like wiring 2 and the detection side loop-like wiring 3 are arranged in a direction orthogonal to each other, the lead lines from these wirings are oriented in two directions with respect to the detection surface. However, considering the ease of installation, a configuration in which the connection from the connector 7 to the controller 6 can be performed in one direction is preferable. Therefore, in order to draw out the wiring from one direction, the lead-out line of one drive side loop-like wiring is routed using the peripheral area of the detection area. At this time, the space in the peripheral region is determined by the number of lead lines. Therefore, as described above, if the number of loop-shaped wirings is increased in order to increase the spatial resolution, the necessary space in the peripheral region also increases. However, considering the usability of the detection device, it is preferable to reduce the extra area other than the detection area.

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention reduces pressure by reducing the number of wires, improves reliability, and further reduces pressure distribution using electromagnetic coupling that can reduce extra areas other than the detection area. An object of the present invention is to provide a detection device or an object detection device.

  In order to achieve the above-described object of the present invention, the pressure distribution detection apparatus using electromagnetic coupling according to the present invention includes a plurality of driving-side loop-like wirings including driving-side signal lines and driving-side ground lines arranged in parallel. A plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wires and a plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wires are arranged in directions orthogonal to each other, and a plurality of detection-side loop-like wires composed of detection-side signal lines and detection-side ground lines are arranged in parallel. Connected to a plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wires and a plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wires, a plurality of drive-side loop-like wires and a plurality of drive-side loop-like wires, The drive means for driving the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the change in the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling portion due to pressure are connected to the plurality of detection-side loop wirings. And a common ground line in which at least one of the plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop-like wirings shares a line adjacent to each other as a ground line. It is what has.

  Here, the common ground line only needs to be electrically shared by connecting adjacent lines between the loop-shaped wirings in series.

  The common ground line may physically share adjacent lines between the loop wirings.

  In addition, the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings are arranged on the respective surfaces of the double-sided board or the two single-sided boards, respectively, and drive-side signal lines, detection-side signal lines, and common ground What is necessary is just to arrange | position so that a line may not cross on each surface.

  Further, the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings may be connected to the driving unit and the detection unit via connectors, respectively.

  Here, each connector may be arranged in one direction.

  Further, a second common ground line may be used in which adjacent lines between adjacent loop wirings are shared as ground lines.

  Furthermore, the object detection device for detecting the shape of the object to be measured and the distance from the object to be measured, which is made of a conductor or magnetic material placed on the detection surface using electromagnetic coupling, includes a driving side signal line and a driving side ground. A plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings arranged in parallel, a plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings, and a plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings arranged in directions orthogonal to each other, a detection-side signal line and a detection-side ground line A plurality of detection-side loop wirings, a plurality of detection-side loop wirings, a plurality of driving-side loop wirings, and a plurality of detection-side loop wirings are configured to be electromagnetically coupled to each other. Connected to a plurality of electromagnetic coupling portions, a plurality of drive-side loop-like wires, and a driving means for driving the plurality of drive-side loop-like wires, and connected to a plurality of detection-side loop-like wires and placed on the detection surface Detecting means for detecting a change in the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling portion by a conductor or a magnetic material from a plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings, and a plurality of driving-side loop-shaped wirings and a plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings At least one has a common ground line that shares adjacent lines between adjacent loop wirings as ground lines.

  In the pressure distribution detection device and the object detection device using the electromagnetic coupling of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the cost by reducing the number of wires, improve the reliability, and further reduce the extra area other than the detection area. There is an advantage that it is possible.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the detection device of the present invention is a controller having a plurality of drive-side loop wirings 20, detection-side loop wirings 30, a drive unit 40, and a detection unit 50, which are arranged on the front and back sides of the double-sided substrate 10. 60. Note that a computer or the like is connected to the controller 60, and various processes may be performed.

  Here, in order to configure the pressure distribution detection device, it is necessary that the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling unit varies with pressure. For example, the substrate may be made of an elastic body, and the distance between the driving side loop-like wiring and the detection side loop-like wiring may be made variable by pressure. When the substrate is made of an inelastic material, a conductor piece or the like whose distance to the electromagnetic coupling portion can be changed by pressure may be separately arranged in the vicinity of the electromagnetic coupling portion. Furthermore, when configuring an object detection device that detects the shape of a measured object made of a conductor or magnetic material placed on the detection surface and the distance from the measured object, a drive-side loop-shaped wiring and a detection-side loop-shaped What is necessary is just to arrange | position the spacer which the distance does not change between wiring. If a conductor is placed on the detection surface, the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling unit changes due to this influence. By measuring this, the shape of the object can be measured. Since these specific configurations may be realized by various configurations disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the prior application described in the prior art, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Now, as shown in FIG. 2, in the detection apparatus of the present invention, the drive side loop wiring 20 is composed of a drive side signal line 20a and a drive side ground line 20b, and a plurality of these drive side loop wirings 20 are parallel. Is arranged. Similarly, the detection-side loop wiring 30 includes a detection-side signal line 30a and a detection-side ground line 30b, and a plurality of the detection-side loop wirings 30 are arranged in parallel. The plurality of detection-side loop wirings 30 are arranged in directions orthogonal to the plurality of driving-side loop wirings 20, respectively.

  In the illustrated example, the drive-side loop wiring 20 and the detection-side loop wiring 30 are arranged on the front and back surfaces of the double-sided substrate 10 respectively. More specifically, the drive-side loop wiring 20 is disposed on the back side of the substrate 10, and the detection-side loop wiring 30 is disposed on the front surface side of the substrate 10. Therefore, the drive-side loop wiring 20 is indicated by a broken line. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be reversed. Alternatively, a structure may be adopted in which two single-sided substrates are used, and each loop-like wiring is arranged on each surface and stacked.

  The plurality of drive-side loop wirings 20 and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings 30 are provided with a plurality of electromagnetic coupling portions 36 configured to electromagnetically couple them. In the illustrated example, the electromagnetic coupling portion 36 is configured to be electromagnetically coupled in the intersecting region by providing coiled patterns in the intersecting regions of the respective loop-shaped wirings. The electromagnetic coupling unit is not limited to the configuration in the illustrated example, and various conventional configurations can be applied. For example, in the illustrated example, the coiled pattern has a rhombus shape, but may be a circular coiled pattern. In addition, the drive-side loop wiring and the detection-side loop wiring have different coil sizes, but they may have the same size. Furthermore, for example, each loop-shaped wiring may be arranged in a straight line and may be configured to be electromagnetically coupled by providing a conductor piece in an intersecting region.

  The plurality of drive-side loop wirings 20 are connected to a drive unit 40 made of an oscillator or the like so as to be driven at a high frequency by an alternating current. The plurality of detection-side loop wirings 30 are connected to a detection unit 50 including a detection amplifier or the like for detecting a change in the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling unit. These connections are made through the drive side connector 70, the detection side connector 71, the cable 80, and the like.

  The drive unit 40 is provided with a wiring switch, and drives the loop wiring by sequentially connecting a plurality of driving side loop wirings 20 to an oscillator. Further, the detection unit 50 also has a wiring switch, and sequentially connects a plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings 30 to the detection amplifier.

  When the drive-side loop wiring 20 is driven, an alternating electromotive force is also induced in the detection-side loop wiring 30 by the electromagnetic coupling phenomenon in the electromagnetic coupling unit 36. The magnitude of this electromotive force varies depending on the degree of electromagnetic coupling. For this reason, when the distance between the coiled patterns facing each other changes due to pressure, or when a conductor or magnetic body approaches, the degree of electromagnetic coupling changes, so that the detection-side loop wiring 30 detects the distance. The current will change. Therefore, if the loop wirings are sequentially connected as described above, it is possible to detect at which electromagnetic coupling portion the degree of electromagnetic coupling has changed. The driving method and the detection method are not limited to the illustrated examples, and can be realized by various configurations disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the prior application described in the related art.

  Next, the common ground line, which is the most characteristic part of the detection device of the present invention, will be described. In the detection apparatus of the present invention, adjacent lines between adjacent loop-shaped wirings of the plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings 20 are shared as a common ground line 25. More specifically, the drive-side loop line 20 is composed of the drive-side signal line 20a and the drive-side ground line 20b, but the drive-side ground line 20b is adjacent between the adjacent drive-side loop lines 20b. Common as a line. In the illustrated example, the drive side ground lines 20b of the adjacent drive side loop wirings 20 are electrically connected in series to be electrically shared.

  In the illustrated example, the detection-side loop wirings also share the common line between adjacent loop-shaped wirings of the plurality of detection-side loop wirings 30 as a common ground line 35. More specifically, the detection-side loop wiring 30 is configured by the detection-side signal line 30a and the detection-side ground line 30b, but the detection-side ground line 30b is adjacent between the adjacent detection-side loop wirings 30. Common as a line. In the illustrated example, the detection-side ground lines 30b of the adjacent detection-side loop wirings 30 are electrically connected in series to be electrically shared. The common ground lines 25 and 35 configured as described above are connected to the drive unit 40 and the detection unit 50 as ground lines.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of wirings that need to be routed by using the common ground line. More specifically, if there are n loop-shaped wirings on one of the driving side and the detection side, it is necessary to route n × 2 wirings in the prior art, but in the present invention, n × 2-n. / Just pulling two wires will suffice. That is, in the present invention, the number of wirings can be reduced by n / 2 as compared with the prior art.

  In the illustrated example, wiring for connection to the controller 60 is performed via the drive side connector 70 and the detection side connector 71. According to the present invention, the number of wires can be reduced by the common ground line, and therefore the number of poles of the drive side connector 70 and the detection side connector 71 can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to reduce costs and improve reliability.

  In consideration of ease of installation and the like, the drive-side connector 70 and the detection-side connector 71 can be arranged in one direction as in the illustrated example. In this case, according to the present invention, since the number of wirings can be reduced, it is possible to reduce the peripheral area necessary for wiring routing as compared with the prior art. Therefore, even when a double-sided board that does not use a through hole or two single-sided boards are used, the drive-side signal lines, the detection-side signal lines, and the common ground lines that are respectively arranged on the respective surfaces are Since it can be arranged so as not to cross on the surface, it can be configured at low cost without using multilayer wiring or the like.

  In the illustrated example described above, the example in which the common ground line is provided in both the driving side loop wiring and the detection side loop wiring has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the common ground line is in the driving side loop shape. It suffices if it is provided on at least one of the wiring and the detection-side loop wiring. Further, it is not necessary to share the adjacent line as a common ground line with respect to all the adjacent loop-shaped wirings. Even if only a part is shared, the effect of the present invention can be obtained.

  Further, in the illustrated example described above, the detection area substrate and the controller are separately configured, and the connection between them is described using a connector or a cable. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the connector It may be connected directly without using a cable. Of course, the drive unit and the detection unit may be provided together on the substrate constituting the detection region.

  Furthermore, in the illustrated example described above, an example in which wiring for routing is also provided on the substrate has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and each loop-shaped wiring and common ground line are provided on the substrate for routing. The wiring for use may be constituted by a flat cable or the like outside the substrate. Even in this case, since the number of wirings can be reduced, an effect such as cost reduction can be obtained. Further, if the ground lines are gathered at the connector and then connected to the controller by a cable, the number of internal lines of the cable can be reduced.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the parts denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 represent the same items and will not be described in detail. In the first embodiment, the common ground line is electrically shared by connecting the adjacent lines between the loop wirings in series, but in the second embodiment, the adjacent lines themselves are physically shared. This constitutes a common ground line. That is, as shown in the figure, for example, in the drive-side loop wiring 20, the drive-side ground line 20 b is common between the adjacent drive-side loop wirings 20, and this one drive-side ground line 20 b is used as a common ground line. 25 is used. Similarly, in the detection-side loop wiring 30, the detection-side ground line 30 b is common between the adjacent detection-side loop wirings 30, and this single detection-side ground line 30 b is used as the common ground line 35. ing. As a result, the number of wirings can be further reduced on the detection area.

  In the illustrated second embodiment, the electromagnetic coupling portion 37 is constituted by a linear drive-side loop-shaped wiring and a detection-side loop-shaped wiring, and a conductor piece 38 provided in the vicinity of the intersecting position. This is a configuration in which an electromagnetic coupling phenomenon is indirectly generated by the conductor piece at the intersection of the linear loop wiring. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a loop-like wiring provided with a coil-like pattern as in the first embodiment may be used.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the loop wiring of the second embodiment of FIG. 3 is a coil pattern. FIG. 4 is a schematic top view for explaining a modification of the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the parts denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 4 represent the same items and will not be described in detail. As shown in the figure, similar to the example shown in FIG. 3, even if the loop wiring is a coil pattern, a common ground line is formed by physically sharing adjacent lines of adjacent loop wirings. It becomes possible to do. In the case of using a rhombus on-coil pattern, if the adjacent lines are shared, the rhombus of the loop-shaped wiring adjacent to each other will be fitted between the rhombuses. Instead, the XY axes are apparently arranged in an oblique direction as in the illustrated example. However, if the coordinates are appropriately determined in the detection unit and the subsequent processing steps, it can be used in the same manner as the matrix.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, the detection-side loop wiring 30 is a common ground line 35 that is physically shared, and the driving-side loop wiring 20 is provided with a common ground line 25 as in the first embodiment. The provided configuration is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the drive-side loop wiring 20 may of course be provided with a common ground line as in the second embodiment.

  Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the parts denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 represent the same items and will not be described in detail. In the third embodiment, the common ground line is further strengthened. That is, in the third example, a second common ground line is provided that shares the adjacent line between adjacent loop-shaped wirings as a ground line from the state of the first example. As shown in the figure, for example, four adjacent loop-shaped wirings may be connected in series, the lines at both ends thereof may be signal lines, and the ground line may be drawn from the center as a common ground line.

  In the third embodiment, in the illustrated example, four electromagnetic coupling units function as one detection cell. In this case, the detection characteristic in the detection cell is flatter than that in the detection cell using one electromagnetic coupling unit.

  Note that the pressure distribution detection device and the object detection device using the electromagnetic coupling of the present invention are not limited to the above illustrated examples, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Of course.

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view for explaining an example of a conventional pressure distribution detection device. FIG. 2 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic top view for explaining a modification of the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic top view for explaining the detection apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Substrate 20 Drive side loop wiring 20a Drive side signal line 20b Drive side ground line 25 Common ground line 30 Detection side loop line 30a Detection side signal line 30b Detection side ground line 35 Common ground line 36 Electromagnetic coupling part 37 Electromagnetic coupling part 38 Conductor piece 40 Drive unit 50 Detection unit 60 Controller 70 Drive side connector 71 Detection side connector 80 Cable

Claims (8)

A pressure distribution detection device using electromagnetic coupling, the pressure distribution detection device,
A plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings, wherein a plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings composed of drive-side signal lines and drive-side ground lines are arranged in parallel;
A plurality of detection-side loop-like wirings arranged in a direction orthogonal to the plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings, and a plurality of detection-side loop-like wirings composed of detection-side signal lines and detection-side ground lines are arranged in parallel;
A plurality of electromagnetic coupling portions configured to electromagnetically couple the plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings;
Driving means connected to the plurality of driving-side loop-shaped wirings and driving the plurality of driving-side loop-shaped wirings;
Detecting means connected to the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wires, and detecting a change in the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling portion due to pressure from the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wires;
And at least one of the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings has a common ground line that shares adjacent lines between adjacent loop-shaped wirings as ground lines.
A pressure distribution detection device characterized by that.   2. The pressure distribution detection device according to claim 1, wherein the common ground line is electrically shared by connecting adjacent lines between loop-shaped wires in series.   2. The pressure distribution detection device according to claim 1, wherein the common ground line physically shares adjacent lines between the loop-shaped wires.   4. The pressure distribution detection device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings are respectively a double-sided board or two single-sided boards. A pressure distribution detection device, wherein the pressure distribution detection device is arranged on a plane so that the drive side signal line, the detection side signal line, and the common ground line do not cross on each plane.   5. The pressure distribution detection device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings are respectively connected to the drive unit and the detection unit via connectors. A pressure distribution detection device connected to   6. The pressure distribution detection device according to claim 5, wherein each of the connectors is arranged in one direction.   7. The pressure distribution detecting device according to claim 1, further comprising a second common ground line that shares adjacent lines between adjacent loop-shaped wirings as ground lines. A pressure distribution detector. An object detection device for detecting a shape of a measured object made of a conductor or a magnetic material placed on a detection surface using electromagnetic coupling and a distance from the measured object, the object detection device comprising:
A plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings, wherein a plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings composed of drive-side signal lines and drive-side ground lines are arranged in parallel;
A plurality of detection-side loop-like wirings arranged in a direction orthogonal to the plurality of drive-side loop-like wirings, and a plurality of detection-side loop-like wirings composed of detection-side signal lines and detection-side ground lines are arranged in parallel;
A plurality of electromagnetic coupling portions configured to electromagnetically couple the plurality of drive-side loop-shaped wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings;
Driving means connected to the plurality of driving-side loop-shaped wirings and driving the plurality of driving-side loop-shaped wirings;
Detecting means connected to the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings and detecting a change in the degree of electromagnetic coupling of the electromagnetic coupling portion by the conductor or magnetic material placed on the detection surface from the plurality of detection-side loop-shaped wirings; ,
And at least one of the plurality of drive-side loop wirings and the plurality of detection-side loop wirings has a common ground line that shares adjacent lines between adjacent loop-shaped wirings as ground lines.
An object detection apparatus characterized by that.