Patent ID: 7812596

Claim:
A position sensing system, comprising: a magnetic member movable in a direction having a vector component along a first axis and in a direction having a vector component along a second axis, the second axis perpendicular to the first axis, the magnetic member movable to a position along a random path; a plurality of two-axis anisotropic magneto-resistive (AMR) sensors arranged in a two-dimensional sensor array that is spaced apart from the magnetic member, the two-dimensional sensor array comprising a plurality of sensor columns and a plurality of sensor rows, each sensor column comprising a plurality of evenly spaced two-axis AMR sensors extending at least parallel to the first axis, each row comprising a plurality of evenly spaced two-axis AMR sensors extending at least parallel to the second axis, each two-axis AMR sensor exhibiting a first electrical resistance value and a second electrical resistance value, the first and second electrical resistance values each representative of a displacement between the sensor and the magnetic member; a signal processor circuit coupled to each of the two-axis AMR sensors, the signal processor circuit operable to (i) sense the first and second resistance values of each two-axis AMR sensor (ii) determine the position of the magnetic member from the first and second resistance values of each two-axis AMR sensor and (iii) supply position feedback data representative of the determined position.