A Position Sensor With Novel Configuration of Linear Variable Differential Transformer

This paper presents a position sensor based on a novel configuration of linear variable differential transformer. Design and optimization of the position sensor using finite element method are presented. The measurements are also conducted to validate experimentally the sensor performance. The sensor has short air core coils and long magnetic armatures. The axis of the rectangular excitation coil and two antiserially connected rectangular pick up coils is perpendicular to the motion direction of the position sensor. The coils are located between two parallel silicon steel laminations serving as the armatures. The position sensor is optimized with compromise between minimization of nonlinearity error and maximum sensitivity. The main advantage of the proposed position sensor is the small ratio of coils dimensions to the working range. The position sensor is operated for excitation frequencies of 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, and 2000 Hz. The maximum nonlinearity error is less than 1.5% for the theoretical results and it is less than 2% for the measured results in +/- 90 mm position range.