Capacitive touch sensor - QuickField simulation example
Capacitance between transmitting and receiving electrodes of a touch sensor with and without a nearby finger, quantifying the touch-induced capacitance change.
How to calculate the effect of a nearby finger on the capacitance of a capacitive touch sensor?
Answer Typical applications Geometry
Given
Task
Solution
Results
Electric field distribution near the touch sensor:
Engineering question
Solve 3D electrostatic models with and without the finger and calculate the Tx–Rx capacitance from the stored electric-field energy.
capacitive touch electrodes, touch sensor buttons, human interface sensors
Download
Simulation problem
Problem Type
3D problem of electrostatics.
Relative permittivity of dielectric = 4.7, dielectric board thickness 1 mm
Relative permittivity of coating = 4, coating thickness 0.1 mm
Tx voltage +1 V, Rx voltage 0 V.
Determine the capacitance between transmitting Tx and receiving Rx electrodes of the touch sensor with and without the finger in their vicinity.
The electrodes are made of conducting foil. We neglect the conducting foil thickness and draw electrodes as zero-thickness surfaces.
For simplicity we approximate the finger shape with a cylinder. Then it is possible to construct the geometry model using 3D extrusion.
Biological tissues show high values of dielectric permittivities (see QuickField Modelling of Electro-Pulse-Therapy), so for the finger we specify the relative dielectric permittivity 10000.
Three situations are analyzed: the finger surface is grounded (zero electric potential), not grounded (floating equal electric potential) and the finger is not present (open space near the conductors).
Capacitance is calculated as C = 2* W / ( ΔU )², where W is a stored electric energy and ΔU is a potential difference between Rx and Tx electrodes
Electric energy W, pJ Capacitance, pF
C = 2* W / ( ΔU )²
Open space 0.093 0.18
Floating cylinder 0.546 1.1
Grounded cylinder 1.04 2.1
Video
Related examples