南昌航空大学科技学院学士学位（论文）外文翻译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 objectCapacitive 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 detected by the sensor. The amount of current flow is determined by the capacitance, and the capacitance is determined by the surface area and proximity of the conductive objects. Larger and closer objects cause greater current than smaller and more distant objects. Capacitance is also affected by the type of nonconductive material in the gap between the objects. Technically speaking, the capacitance is directly proportional to the surface area of the objects and the dielectric constant of the material between them, and inversely proportional to the distance between them as shown.:In typical capacitive sensing applications, the probe or sensor is one of the conductive objects and the target object is the other. (Using capacitive sensors to sense plastics and other insulators will be discussed in the second part of this article.) The sizes of the sensor and the target are assumed to be constant, as is the material between them. Therefore, any change in capacitance is a result of a change in the distance between the probe and the target. The electronics are calibrated to generate specific voltage changes for corresponding changes in capacitance. These voltages are scaled to represent specific changes in distance. The amount of voltage change for a given amount of distance change is called the sensitivity. A common sensitivity setting is 1.0 V/100 m. That means that for every 100 m change in distance, the output voltage changes exactly 1.0 V. With this calibration, a 2 V change in the output means that the target has moved 200 m relative to the probe.Focusing the Electric FieldWhen a voltage is applied to a conductor, the electric field emanates from every surface. In a capacitive sensor, the sensing voltage is applied to the sensing area of the probe. For accurate measurements, the electric field from the sensing area needs to be contained within the space between the probe and the target. If the electric field is allowed to spread to other itemsor other areas on the targetthen a change in the position of the other item will be measured as a change in the position of the target. A technique called guarding is used to prevent this from happening. To create a guard, the back and sides of the sensing area are surrounded by another conductor that is kept at the same voltage as the sensing area itself. When the voltage is applied to the sensing area, a separate circuit applies the exact same voltage to the guard. Because there is no difference in voltage between the sensing area and the guard, there is no electric field between them. Any other conductors beside or behind the probe form an electric field with the guard instead of with the sensing area. Only the unguarded front of the sensing area is allowed to form an electric field with the target.DefinitionsSensitivity indicates how much the output voltage changes as a result of a change in the gap between the target and the probe. A common sensitivity is 1 V/0.1 mm. This means that for every 0.1 mm of change in the gap, the output voltage will change 1 V. When the output voltage is plotted against the gap size, the slope of the line is the sensitivity. A systems sensitivity is set during calibration. When sensitivity deviates from the ideal value this is called sensitivity error, gain error, or scaling error. Since sensitivity is the slope of a line, sensitivity error is usually presented as a percentage of slope, a comparison of the ideal slope with the actual slope.Offset error occurs when a constant value is added to the output voltage of the system. Capacitive gauging systems are usually zeroed during setup, eliminating any offset deviations from the original calibration. However, should the offset error change after the system is zeroed, error will be introduced into the measurement. Temperature change is the primary factor in offset error.Sensitivity can vary slightly between any two points of data. The accumulated effect of this variation is called linearity erro. The linearity specification is the measurement of how far the output varies from a straight line.To calculate the linearity error, calibration data are