Advantages of Capacitive sensor | Disadvantages of Capacitive sensor

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Capacitive sensor. It mentions Capacitive sensor advantages and Capacitive sensor disadvantages.

Definition of Capacitive sensor:
The device used for capacitive sensing is known as capacitive sensor. It is based on principle of capacitive coupling. It can detect and consecutively measure things which are conductive or having dielectric other than air. One example is liquid level sensing where in change in liquid between the two sensors indicate change in dielectric material. This causes variation in capacitance.


capacitive level sensing

Capacitance of two parallel plates with Area ('A') and separated by distance ('d') is expressed as follows.


capacitive sensing equation

The major application of capacitive sensor is level sensing as mentioned above.
Refer capacitive sensor basics and working >> for more information.

Advantages of Capacitive sensor

Following are the advantages of Capacitive sensor:
➨It can be used to detect non-metallic targets.
➨It can detect through containers of certain types also.
➨It is simple in construction and adjustable.
➨It can detect dense targets and liquids.
➨It is lower in cost.
➨It has higher sensitivity and can be operational with small magnitude of force.
➨It can be used for the measurement of force, pressure and humidity etc.
➨It has very good resolution (as low as 0.003 mm) and frequency response.

Disadvantages of Capacitive sensor

Following are the disadvantages of Capacitive sensor:
➨It is very much sensitive to changes in environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity etc. This will affect the performance.
➨The measurement of capacitance is hard compare to measurement of resistance.
➨Capacitive proximity sensor are not so accurate compare to inductive sensor type.

Different types of Sensors Related links

Article on Sensors and Transducers>>
Proximity Sensor
Occupancy Sensor vs Motion Sensor
LVDT and RVDT sensor
Position, displacement and level sensor
force sensor and strain sensor
temperature sensor
pressure sensor
Humidity sensor
MEMS sensor
Touch sensor
Haptic sensor
Wireless sensor

Advantages and Disadvantages of other Sensor Types

Capacitive    Inductive    Photoelectric    Ultrasonic    Infrared    Motion    Biometric    Force    Humidity    Temperature    Light    Barometer    Sound    pH    Soil Moisture   

What is Difference between

difference between OFDM and OFDMA
Difference between SC-FDMA and OFDM
Difference between SISO and MIMO
Difference between TDD and FDD
FDMA vs TDMA vs CDMA
FDM vs TDM
CDMA vs GSM

RF and Wireless Terminologies