JPS6313132B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a position detection element used for positioning a control device or the like.

In recent years, with the rapid development of microcomputers, industrial equipment and the like are rapidly being systematized as computer-controlled devices.

In order to control such industrial equipment, sensors that function to connect mechanical displacement or changes in external factors to a computer are becoming important.
If these sensors are to be controlled in any way by a computer, the input information must be accurate, and development is progressing to make them even more stable and accurate.

There are many types of such sensors, each with a different functional form, and one of them is a position detection element that determines or detects a position.

FIG. 1 is one of the principle diagrams of a position detection method that has been conventionally used in a recorder such as a recorder or a linear scale for measuring the amount of movement of an object. and the slider 12 of the potentiometer 11
The structure is such that the position of the object attached to the slider 12 can be determined by the voltage e ₁ obtained from the position of the slider 12 .

However, in automatic control equipment using a computer or the like, the detected position needs to be a digital value. Therefore _, in the method using the potentiometer, as shown in FIG.
It is necessary to convert it into digital data 22 using a converter 21. Further, the positional accuracy of the potentiometer 11 is determined by the linearity of the potentiometer, and the temperature coefficient of its resistance is also required to be small. Furthermore, in this method using a potentiometer, due to the relationship between the position of the slider 12 of the potentiometer 11 and the resistance value, if the voltage is applied directly to the A/D converter 21, a shift in offset voltage will inevitably occur.
For this purpose, it becomes necessary to insert impedance conversion using the operational amplifier 23 or to correct the obtained digital value.

In order to use position detection using a linear potentiometer for automatic control using a computer, etc., (1) an A/D converter is required; (2) it has good linearity and a low temperature coefficient to improve accuracy; A small potentiometer is required, and (3) an offset correction circuit or process is required, which increases the price of the interface and increases the cost of the entire control system.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate these drawbacks (1), (2), and (3) and provide a position detection element that can directly obtain digital values.

The present invention provides a laminate in which an insulator and one or more conductor layers are laminated and integrated, and the laminate has a flat surface in which the ends of each conductor layer are exposed. Conductor terminals respectively connected to the conductor portions are formed in portions of the laminate different from the plane,
Alternatively, the position detection element is characterized by a structure in which a portion of each conductor portion is exposed.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to Examples.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a conductor pattern formed in a position detection element showing an embodiment of the present invention.

Widths of the protruding portion 31 and the notch portion 32, S and T
have the same dimensions, and all of these protruding parts are connected at a common part 33 and have a lead-out terminal 34. The dimension L here is the maximum dimension that enables position detection, and the dimension B is for shifting the lead terminals of different patterns.

The conductor pattern configured in this manner is used as a basic pattern, and the widths, S and T of the protruding portion 31 and the notch portion 32 are different by a ratio of 2 ⁿ (n = 0, 1, 2...p), and There were P+1 types of conductor patterns in which the positions B of the terminals 34 were shifted, and these P+1 types of conductor patterns were formed on a green sheet made of an insulator and an organic substance by screen printing of conductor paste or the like.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, these green sheets having P+1 types of conductor patterns are divided into sheets 41 having ²⁰ patterns, sheet 42 having ²¹ patterns, sheet 43 having 22 patterns, and ²³ sheets having P+ ¹ types of conductor patterns. A sheet 44 having a pattern of ^2p , a sheet 45 having a pattern of 24, and a sheet 46 having a pattern of ^2p are stacked together, and then a sheet 47 of the entire conductor without the cutout portion is stacked. In this example, sheets up to p=4 were used.

Next, a sheet 48 without a conductive pattern is layered on the upper and lower surfaces, and the pressure is 200 to 300 at a temperature of 100 to 130°C.
It was laminated and pressed at Kg/ ^cm2 .

FIG. 5 shows the laminate shown in FIG.
and a contact terminal surface 63 which is cut so that the take-out terminals 52 come out from the end faces 53 and 54, respectively, and has a contact terminal 61 having a pitch of ²⁰ to 2 ^p as shown in FIG. 6 and a contact terminal 62 which is a full conductor. and 2 ⁰ ~ in Figure 7
A position detection element having a lead-out terminal surface 73 having each lead-out terminal 71 of ^2p and a lead-out terminal 72 of all conductors was manufactured.

The insulating raw sheet used in this example was 40 to 60% by weight of aluminum oxide and 40 to 60% by weight of crystallized glass.
A mixed powder selected to have a total amount of 100% within the composition range of is made into a slurry with a binder, an organic solvent, and a plasticizer, and a raw sheet of 20 μm to 300 μm is formed on a polyester film by slip casting film formation such as the doctor blade method. After molding and peeling, the sheet was punched to desired dimensions.
The composition of the crystallized glass powder used here is based on the oxide conversion notation: lead oxide, boron oxide, silicon dioxide, group element oxides, and group element (excluding carbon silicon and lead) oxides, respectively. Weight ratio 3
~65%, 2~50%, 4~65%, 0.1~50%, 0.02
A composition composed of a composition selected such that the total amount was 100% within a composition range of ~20% was used.

Moreover, the position detection element of the present invention can also be produced using a steel clad laminate instead of the raw sheet used in this example.

FIG. 8 shows an application example of the position detection element of this embodiment, in which a conductive contactor is pressed against a moving object 81 moving along a moving shaft 85 with a constant pressure by a spring 82. 83, and the contact terminal surface 84 of the position detection element of the present invention is attached so as to be able to slide on the contact 83.

The position detection of a moving object configured in this way is performed by the ninth
As shown in the figure, the terminals 72 of all the conductor sheets of the position detecting element 91 are connected to the GND 92, and the terminals 2 ⁰ , 2 ¹ , 2 ² , . . .
... ^2p is pulled up to Vcc by resistor 93. For this reason, these pull-up terminals
2 ⁰ , 2 ¹ , 2 ² , . . . 2 ^p are pulled up to Vcc by a resistor 93. Therefore, the voltage levels of these pull-up terminals 2 ⁰ , 2 ¹ , 2 ^{2 ,} . It becomes a signal.

When the position detection element of the present invention is used in this way,
Since the position-based output is a binary code that can be processed directly by a computer, there is no need for a conventional A/D converter. Also, since the output code for position can be at any level by changing the pull-up voltage, all common interface elements can be used, and there is no need to worry about offset shifts. . Furthermore, since the pattern is formed by screen printing as in the manufacturing process, it is clear that a pattern with good linearity can be easily obtained. Furthermore, since the sintered material has a small coefficient of thermal expansion, very good temperature characteristics can be obtained.

As is clear from the above description, since the position detection element of the present invention can be directly connected to a computer or the like, the position detection circuit can be extremely simple and highly reliable.

In the above example, ²⁰ patterns of T and S are
0.2mm, maximum pattern is 2 ⁷ , 51.2
We obtained a position detection element with a resolution of 0.2 mm.

Furthermore, although alumina glass is used as the raw insulator seed in the above embodiment, it is clear that similar effects can be obtained by forming patterns on sheets made of other materials and laminating them. It is clear that the same effect can be obtained even if the terminals are brought out on one surface using a through-hole connection or the like inside, without any limitation on the position of the terminals.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a different embodiment from the above. On the contact terminal surface 111, in addition to the ²⁰ to ²⁷ patterns 112, which are p-7 in the above example, a reading mark pattern 113 is layered so as to appear.

This reading mark pattern 113 has a width smaller than the width of the ²⁰ patterns and is located at the center of the ²⁰ patterns. Further, the reading mark pattern 113 has a terminal 115 extending from the terminal surface 114, similar to the patterns 112 of ²⁰ to ²⁷ .

FIG. 11 shows an example of the connection of the position detection element 120, in which the reading mark pattern 113
The output terminal 115 is connected to the GND 121. As a result, the contactor 122 need only be a short piece, and there is no need for electrical contact with a moving object as shown in the previous embodiment. Furthermore, in the reading device 123, the position detection element 120
Only when the output terminals ²⁰ to ²⁷ are all open (Vcc level) 255 (decimal number) are they not treated as numerical values, and the previously read value is held.

The position detection element configured as described above reads only the position of the reading mark, thereby eliminating false detection due to minute positional deviation of the pattern inside the stack, and highly reliable position detection can be obtained.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment, in which the contact terminal surface 131 has the width W _p of the electrode portion as shown in the previous embodiment, which is the same as the width of 2 ⁰ (minimum pattern); The array state has been changed to become a binary code.

In such a configuration example, since there are no electrodes in areas unnecessary for reading as shown in the previous example, the amount of electrode material used in the internal electrode formation process can be significantly reduced, and furthermore, the sintering of the electrodes and ceramic can be reduced. It is clear that an element with a long sensing dimension can be obtained.

Furthermore, by increasing the area that does not require reading, it can be used as a scale of any size (for example, a detection element with a 5mm pitch or a detection element with a pitch of 10mm, 20mm, or other pitches), allowing a wide range of applications such as positioning of robots, etc. is clear. Furthermore, the arrangement of the ²⁰ to ^2p patterns appearing on these contact terminal surfaces does not have to be a binary code. For example, if it is a BCD code arrangement or a pattern stored on the reader side, it is clear that position detection is possible regardless of the arrangement order.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of position detection using a linear potentiometer. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram for converting position detection by a linear potentiometer into a digital value. FIG. 3 is a diagram of a conductor pattern of a position detection element according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram in which 2 ⁰ to 2 ^p types of patterns are superimposed in the manufacturing process of the example. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a laminated sintered body of a position detection element according to an embodiment. 6th
The figure is a view of the contact conductor terminal surface from which the electrode of the protruding portion of the position detection element of the embodiment is exposed. FIG. 7 is a diagram of a similar lead terminal surface with electrodes protruding from it. FIG. 8 is a structural diagram showing an example of application of the position detection element according to the embodiment of the present invention, in which it is attached to a moving object. 9th
FIG. 11 is a connection diagram of the position detection element of the embodiment with devices such as a computer. FIGS. 10 and 12 are perspective views of position detection elements according to other embodiments of the present invention. In the figure, 11... linear potentiometer, 12... slider, E... voltage applied to the potentiometer, e ₁ ... voltage depending on the position of the slider,
21... A/D converter, 22... Digital data, 23... Operational amplifier, 31... Protruding part, 32... Notch part, 33... Common part,
34...Takeout conductor terminal, L...Length to enable position detection, S...Width of the protruding portion, T...Width of the notch portion, B...Positional dimension of the takeout terminal. 41
...Sheet with a pattern of 2 ⁰ , 42...Sheet with a pattern of 2 ¹ , Sheet with a pattern of 43...2 ² , Sheet with a pattern of 44...2 ³ , Sheet with a pattern of 45...2 ⁴ a sheet having
46... Sheet with a pattern of 2 ^p , 47...
All-conductor sheet without cutouts, 48...
Sheet without pattern, 51... protruding part,
52, 71, 72, 115... take-out terminal, 5
3 and 54... end face, 61 and 62... contact terminal, 63, 111, 131... contact terminal surface, 7
3,114...Takeout terminal surface, 81...Moving object, 82...Spring, 83,122...Contactor, 8
5...Movement shaft, 91, 120...Position detection element, 92...GND, 93...Resistance, 94,
123...Reading device, 113...Reading mark pattern.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A laminate in which an insulator and one or more conductor layers are laminated and integrated, and the laminate has a flat surface where the end of each conductor layer is exposed, and the laminate has a flat surface where the end of each conductor layer is exposed. A position detection element characterized by a structure in which conductor terminals are formed to correspond to and connect to each of the conductor portions in a portion different from the plane, or a portion of each of the conductor portions is exposed.