Non-Contact Human Interface Capacitive Switch

Published:2013/9/12 20:25:00 Author:lynne | Keyword: Non-Contact Human Interface Capacitive Switch | From:SeekIC

Simple, highly sensitive capacitive ON/OFF switch pads change the state of a latch and turn on an LED without requiring actual physical human contact. The pad may be insulated. A range of 12mm is easily obtained and sensitivity is adjustable.Power is supplied via a common 9V battery. Central is the 74HC02 CMOS NOR Gate IC. The gate input capacitance is typically only 3pF. To enable a sufficient voltage to change states reliably a 100M bias resistor is recommended. I had to check to see if such a resistor is easily available — yes, it is available from DigiKey at a cost is only $0.52. Or you can fabricate a resistor via series 10 or 22M resistors — that is what I did to obtain 50M. The ‘low sides’ of these resistors are tied to a bias potentiometer so that the static gate input voltage may be set very close to the threshold. Sensitivity is also increased by reducing Vcc to 2.7V (minimum specified operating voltage is 2.0V). I was able to obtain a range of about 16mm using a 50M resistor and paperclip ‘non-contact pad.’ I also experimented with the CD4011 NOR gate—it worked reasonably well, but it has higher gate input capacitance (5pF) and minimum operating voltage is also higher at 3.0V. A 2N7000 N-Channel MOSFET (Q1) drives a 20mA ultrabright white LED. Note that the gate output voltage may be insufficient to fully turn on the transistor because the maximum Vgs threshold voltage is 3V. Fortunately, most run close to the typical 2.1V. In case one does not work, try another device. Quiescent battery drain is only 56uA. The 1M input resistors protect the IC against static discharge and actually allow touching of the pad without danger.



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