Patent ID: 11927645
Assignee: INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. The capacitive sensor of claim 1, wherein:
the diagnostic circuit comprises a comparator, a counter, and a fault detector,
the comparator is configured to receive an output voltage representative of the first voltage transient response and compare the output voltage to a reference threshold in order to generate a comparison result having one of two comparator values,
the counter is configured to stop counting when the comparison result changes from a first comparator value to a second comparator value and output a stopped counter value representative of the first time constant,
the fault detector is configured to compare the stopped counter value to a pull-in threshold value that corresponds to the pull-in capacitance,
when the first electrical signal is a pull-in signal, the fault detector is configured to generate a first error signal in response to the stopped counter value being less than the pull-in threshold value, and
when the first electrical signal is a non-pull-in signal, the fault detector is configured to generate a second error signal in response to the stopped counter value being equal to or greater than the pull-in threshold value.