Patent ID: 8432169

Claim:
A proximity sensor, comprising: an oscillation circuit having an LC resonant circuit and an oscillation control circuit, the LC resonant circuit including a sensing coil and a capacitor, the oscillation control circuit being configured to supply an electric current to the LC resonant circuit to generate oscillating voltage across the LC resonant circuit, a frequency of the oscillating voltage being decided by circuit parameters of the LC resonant circuit; and an amplitude measurement circuit configured to produce an amplitude signal corresponding to amplitude of said oscillating voltage; wherein the proximity sensor further comprises: a control circuit configured to set negative conductance of the oscillation control circuit to a critical value by which the LC resonant circuit can oscillate, based on the amplitude signal; and a signal processing circuit configured to produce a distance signal corresponding to the distance between an object and the sensing coil based on a parameter relevant to said negative conductance, the object changing impedance of the sensing coil by approaching the LC resonant circuit.