Patent ID: 11933084
Assignee: VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E  H | IPC E  H

Claim 7:
8. A method for detecting a presence of a user in proximity of a presence detection sensor for unlocking an opening panel of a motor vehicle,
said sensor comprising:
a microcontroller comprising an analog-digital converter, a first input-output port, a second input-output port forming a voltage reference of said analog-digital converter, a third input-output port for supplying the microcontroller with voltage, a fourth input-output port and a fifth input-output port, called “connection ports”;
a capacitive voltage divider connected to said connection input-output ports and comprising at least one detection capacitor and at least one storage capacitor; and
a resistive module connected between the first input-output port and the second input-output port of the microcontroller and a capacitive module connected between the second input-output port of the microcontroller and a ground, and in that the microcontroller is configured to internally connect the first input-output port and the third input-output port during a predetermined charging duration of the capacitive module in order to dynamically establish the reference voltage of the analog-digital converter, said method comprising:

an initialization phase, during which the microcontroller firstly charges the capacitive module to the power supply voltage by connecting the first input-output port to the third input-output port during the charging duration, then, once charging is complete, performs a capacitive measurement in order to deduce therefrom an optimal reference voltage and a charging time required to obtain this optimal reference voltage;
a reference acquisition phase, during which the microcontroller controls the capacitive voltage divider so that it performs a series of capacitive measurements at the optimal reference voltage determined during the initialization phase in order to obtain a reference value of the measured capacitive signal; and
a measurement phase, during which the microcontroller controls the capacitive voltage divider at the determined optimal reference voltage and said capacitive voltage divider periodically measures the voltage value at the terminals of the storage capacitor, so as to detect or not detect a human presence in the proximity of the sensor.