Patent ID: 7443159

Claim:
An inductive sensor unit ( 1 ), which detects the position of a vehicle seat, said unit having: a plurality of sensor coils (L 1 . . . Li) disposed in planar fashion on a printed circuit board ( 3 ), and a conductive actuating element ( 7 ), adapted to be guided in, spaced apart relationship (a), on a path along the sensor coils (L 1 . . . Li), said conductive actuating element having conductive bottom faces and an electrical evaluation circuit ( 5 , 11 - 17 ; 19 ), which detects changes in inductance of the sensor coils (L 1 . . . Li) in accordance with a path position (x) of the actuating element ( 7 ) and which converts the changes into electrical signals into seat position signals, wherein the actuating element ( 7 ) is guided along the sensor coils (L 1 . . . Li) with conductive bottom faces ( 9 , 9 ′, 9 ″, 10 ) that are staggered in the direction of the path.