Patent ID: 7161348

Claim:
An inductive sensor unit ( 1 ), for detecting the position of a vehicle seat or for a gate shifting unit of an automatic transmission comprising: a plurality of sensor coils (L 1 , . . . , Li) disposed in planar fashion on a printed circuit board ( 3 ), a conductive actuation element ( 7 ), adapted to be guided in spaced apart relationship (a), on a path over the sensor coils (L 1 , . . . , Li), an electrical evaluation circuit ( 5 , 11 – 17 ), for detecting changes in inductance of the sensor coils (L 1 , . . . , Li) in accordance with a path position (x) of the actuation element ( 7 ) and for converting the changes into electrical signals corresponding to seat position signals or gear shifting signals, wherein the actuation element ( 7 ) is guided, spaced apart ( 9 , 9 ′) on both sides, over the sensor coils (L 1 , . . . , Li), and the electrical evaluation circuit ( 5 , 11 – 17 ) detects the inductances of all the sensor coils (L 1 , . . . , Li) and converts them by means of an algorithm into a current path position (x) of the actuation element ( 7 ).