Capacitive Sensor Operation Part 1: The BasicsPart 1 of this two-part article reviews the concepts and theory of capacitive sensing to help to optimize capacitive sensor performance
Part 2 of this article will discuss how to put these concepts to work
Noncontact capacitive sensors measure the changes in an electrical property called capacitance
Capacitance describes how two conductive objects with a space between them respond to a voltage difference applied to them
A voltage applied to the conductors creates an electric field between them, causing positive and negative charges to collect on each object Capacitive sensors use an alternating voltage that causes the charges to continually reverse their positions
The movement of the charges creates an alternating electric current that is d