Patent ID: 9417295
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: G01B,G01D,G01R

Claim Text:
1. A magnetic field sensor, comprising: a semiconductor substrate having a first surface in an x-y plane; a Circular Vertical Hall (CVH) sensing element comprised of a plurality of vertical Hall elements, wherein each one of the plurality of vertical Hall elements is arranged upon a common circular implant region in the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the plurality of vertical Hall elements is configured to generate a plurality of x-y output signals responsive to a magnetic field having a direction component parallel to the x-y plane, wherein the CVH sensing element is configured to generate a CVH output signal comprised of the plurality of x-y output signals, wherein the magnetic field results from a multi-pole magnet having a plurality of north poles and a plurality of south poles, each disposed in a plane parallel to the x-y plane, each north pole proximate to at least one south pole; an angle sensing circuit coupled to receive the CVH output signal and configured to generate an x-y angle signal representative of an angle of the direction component of the magnetic field as the multi-pole magnet and the CVH sensing element move relative to each other; a pole pair counting module coupled to receive a signal representative of the x-y angle signal and configured to generate a count signal representative of a count of a number of the pole pairs of the multi-pole magnet that move past the CVH sensing element; and an angle interpolation module coupled to receive the x-y angle signal and the count signal, the angle interpolation module configured to generate a reconstructed x-y angle signal representative of an angular position of the multi-pole magnet relative to the CVH sensing element, the reconstructed x-y angle signal generated based upon the count signal and the x-y angle signal, the reconstructed x-y angle signal having a higher resolution than the x-y angle signal.