Description

Typical implementations of distance measurements use expensive rare-earth magnets. To lower overall system cost: this reference design walks through the implementation of industry’s first inductance-to-digital converters from TI for linear position sensing without the use of any expensive rare-earth magnets. Linear position sensing determines the position of a target that moves laterally across an inductive sensor that is generating a magnetic field. An inductance-to-digital converter (LDC): like the LDC1000 or LDC1101: senses inductance changes of an inductor that comes into proximity with a conductive target: such as a piece of metal. The LDC measures this inductance shift to provide information about the position of a conductive target over a sensor coil. The inductance shift is caused by eddy currents generated in the target due to the magnetic field of the sensor. These eddy currents generate a secondary magnetic field that opposes the sensor field: causing a shift in the observed inductance.