Patent ID: 11860048
Assignee: THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  H  A | IPC A  B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A sensor apparatus comprising:
a capacitor including
a first substrate having a first electrode;
a second substrate having a second electrode that includes sections; and
a dielectric layer having a plurality of dielectric structures arranged in a pattern, the first and second electrode being separated by the dielectric layer and arranged with an overlapping area with respect to one another; and

sensor circuitry coupled to and operative with the capacitor and configured to detect diagonal shear forces applied to the sensor apparatus based on changes in capacitance indicated by monitoring the sections of the second electrode,
wherein the first substrate has four electrodes, including the first electrode, that are arranged in a pattern, and the second electrode of the second substrate is cross-shaped, and wherein the sensor circuitry is to distinguish between torsion and diagonal shear forces applied to the sensor apparatus by monitoring changes in the capacitance from the cross-shaped second electrode, wherein a torsion force results in capacitance changes in quadratic and the diagonal shear forces result in capacitance changes in linear.