Capacitive Gauging System Utilizing a Low Internal Capacitance, High Impedance Amplifier Means

The invention relates to a capacitive noncontact gauging system for measuring the surface characteristics of a work piece. The system consists of a multiplicity of probes which are placed adjacent to the grounded work piece. The probes and work piece form, in effect, a variable capacitor whose capacitance varies with the spacing between the work piece and the probe. Various schemes have been used to measure this capacitance and produce an electric signal which is indicative of the probe-to-work piece distance. One method of doing this is the frequency modulation method, an example of which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,782 of J. J. Henry, or U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,679 to R. C. Abbe. In the frequency modulation method the change in capacitance is used to modify the frequency of an oscillator, which change in frequency is used to produce the output distance indicative signal. A second approach is an amplitude sensitive system in which a capacitor of known capacitance and the probe-to-work piece capacitance act as a voltage divider. The ratio of voltage across both capacitances varies as the variable capacitance varies. In the amplitude sensitive system, the output from the voltage divider is processed and normally transformed into an indication of the distance between the probe and the work piece.

Although many of the inventive concepts of the present invention are applicable to frequency modulation systems, the present invention is an amplitude sensitive system. The present system presents many improvements over other amplitude sensitive systems and frequency modulation systems. One of the advantages is in the elimination of parallel parts. Many of the prior systems required an oscillator and signal processing circuitry for each probe. The present invention, by contrast, has a single oscillator and a single signal processing circuit for a large multiplicity of probes. The present invention contemplates using 200 or more probes with a single oscillator and a single processing circuit.

An additional advantage of the present system is in its temperature stability. The changes in capacitance between the probes and the work pieces are generally very small which makes capacitive measuring systems very susceptible to error from temperature changes and stray capacitance. Small changes in temperature have been found to cause large variations in many systems. In the present invention, a very low input capacitance and high impedance unity gain amplifier is used to improve temperature stability. The amplifier of the present invention has been found to be accurate to 0.1% over a temperature range of 35.degree. to 150.degree. F.

The present invention, because of its temperature stability and other superior design characteristics, is able to measure very small changes in distance. Distances of a few millionths of an inch can be detected. This great precision is required when measuring many surface characteristics such as straightness or conformance to a contour. The present gauging machine finds ready use for determining the flatness of machine molded, stamped, cast or fabricated parts, the straightness of cylinder walls or holes, and the conformance to specified contours of such complex parts as step shafts, air foils, and turbine blades.

A further advantage of the present invention is its rapid measuring ability. Although the speed will vary with the number of probes used, it has been found that with 240 probes the present invention can usually produce an indication of the conformance of a work piece at 240 positions within 5 seconds. This rapidly increases the precision of measurement instruments because the surface contour of the work piece can be sampled at such a large number of points. Further, this rapidity enables testing equipment to sample large numbers of work pieces in a relatively short amount of operating time.

The present system has a further advantage in that the large number of probes can be arranged in a linear array or in a grid array or along a winding contour or in most any other array. The linear array, however, produces the most easily understood two dimensional display of surface contour. Because of linear array of the present invention can measure 200 or more points along a single line of contact of the work piece, the system can produce a very detailed two dimensional, cross section-like view of the surface along the line of closest proximity between the work piece and the line of probes. The work piece may be shifted or rotated, to view other line segments along its surface.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a gauging system in accord with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of one of the head assemblies of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a probe amplifier in accord with the present invention.

The speed gauging system shown in FIG. 1 has two segments--the remote or measuring unit 10, and the control or central unit 12. Measuring unit 10 which holds the probe elements along with related circuitry is normally positioned to come into close proximity to the work piece to be tested. The central unit 12 contains the common signal processing equipment and, optionally, the output display unit 48. The measuring unit and the control unit are connected by a section of cable 14.

The measuring unit consists of a plurality of head assemblies 16. The exact structure of the head assemblies will be shown and described in more detail in connection with FIG. 2. Any number of head assemblies may be used, however, for digital processing equipment 16 head assemblies has been found to be a convenient number. Each of the head assemblies contains a multiplicity of probes, the capacitive voltage divider for each probe, and an amplifier which buffers each voltage divider and decreases the output impedance. The output of each head assembly is connected to an analog multiplexer and buffer circuit 18. Each of the analog multiplexer and buffers 18 have an output connected to analog multiplexer and buffer 20. The analog multiplexers 18 sequentially sample each of the multiplicity of probes within the head assembly to which they are connected. The analog multiplexer 20 sequentially samples each of the multiplexers 18. In this manner, a sequential sampling of all the probes is accomplished. The output of analog multiplexer 20 is a series of signals each indicative of the capacitance between one of the probes and the work piece, which signals are in a known sequential order.

As indicated above, the system is very sensitive to capacitance and slight variations in the tolerances of the components which make up the circuits. This sensitivity is especially noticeable in the amplifiers for each of the probes. With precision manufacturing and calibration the individual amplifiers could be made to have the same circuit characteristics. However, such precision is monetarily and time-wise a consuming operation. The present invention overcomes the need for this with a series of PROM's 22. Each of the amplifiers is tested and two circuit constants, K.sub.1 and K.sub.2, indicative of the variations of tolerances of the parts within the amplifier and probe assembly, are determined. For each amplifier in each of the head assemblies, the two corresponding constants are programmed into the corresponding PROM 22.

Each of the PROM's 22 have an output connected to a digital multiplexer 24. As the multiplexers 20 and 24 are both addressed by the same signals on control line 26 from front control panel, the outputs of the multiplexers will then be a series of signals representing the output voltage from each of the head assembly amplifiers on line 28 and the corresponding circuit constants for that amplifier on line 30.

Looking now to control unit 12, it can be seen that the analog voltage indicative of the relative capacitance or distance between the probes and the work piece comes into control unit 12 through cable 14 on line 28. The signal first goes to the auto zero control circuit 32. This circuit does not operate on the analog voltage, but rather is an automatic calibration circuit which, between samplings, is able to cut off the input on line 28 and ground the line going into the signal processing circuitry. When the microprocessor 34 sends a command to the auto zero circuit to ground the input of the signal processing equipment, it correspondingly adjusts the output signal to zero. In this manner it automatically calibrates the circuitry in the control circuit system 12.

When a measurement is being taken, the analog voltage signals on line 28 are passed through circuit 32 to the rectifier and filter circuit 36. The signal coming in to the rectifier-filter circuit 36 will be in the form of an oscillating voltage signal whose amplitude is indicative of the probe-to-work piece spacing. Circuit 36 first rectifies this oscillating signal with a full wave rectifier and then filters the rectified signal to produce a steady state or DC analog voltage which is proportional in amplitude to the probe-to-work piece spacing. This analog signal, V.sub.o, goes to a divider circuit 40 and to a subtraction circuit 42.

For each voltage V.sub.o corresponding to one of the probes, the microprocessor reads on line 30 the constants K.sub.1 and K.sub.2 corresponding to the same probe and feeds the constant K.sub.2 to a digital-to-analog converter 44. The output digital-to-analog converter 44 forms a second input to subtraction circuit 32. The output signal of subtraction circuit 42, K.sub.2 -V.sub.o, and the output from rectifier-filter circuit 36, V.sub.o, are both fed to divider circuit 40. Circuit 40 divides the output of the rectifier filter circuit by the output of the subtraction circuit. The output of the divider is then fed to an analog-to-digital converter 46, which transforms the radio produced by divider 40 into a digital signal and feeds it to the microprocessor 34. Microprocessor 34 multiplies this signal by the constant K.sub.1 to get a final signal which may be expressed as:

As will be explained in the theory part to follow, this equation represents the distance beween the probe and the work piece. This value is normally put into temporary storage in the microprocessor. From the temporary storage it is read out to a display device such as that shown in copending applications Ser. No. 855,128 or 855,522, to other suitable display devices, or to a memory device to be recorded for later recall.

Instead of calculating actual probe to work piece distances, the microprocessor can compare each distance value with a series of preselected values. For example, a standardized work piece, which is exactly to tolerances, could be placed adjacent the probe assembly and the distance values calculated and stored in microprocessor 34 or the microprocessor could be programmed with the ideal values. The microprocessor may be programmed to subtract the distance values obtained for each subsequent work piece from the values determined for the standard and to display the deviation from the standard. The display may be a straight line when the work piece is perfect with deflections above the line indicating a bulge and deflections below the line indicating an indentation. Alternately, based on meeting some quality control criteria such as one measurement being out of tolerance or a segment or plurality of the distances deviating from the standard by more than an acceptable average or some other criteria, an accept or reject signal can be produced, which signal will cause automated work piece handling equipment to place the work piece in either an acceptable or unacceptable pile.

Also in the central control housing is oscillator 52. The oscillator produces a high frequency oscillating voltage with a very rigidly controlled amplitude. By way of example, a frequency of 200 kilohertz and a 12 volts peak to peak voltage have been found to be satisfactory. Th oscillator output signal is applied through oscillator buffer 54 to the input of each of the probe amplifiers in each of the head assemblies 16.

The oscillator signal is connected to each of the analog multiplexers/buffers 18. This enables the oscillator voltage to be sampled periodically by each of the analog multiplexers for automatic recalibration. For example, by sampling the oscillator voltage once with each scanning of the fifteen probes within one of the heads, the oscillator can be automatically recalibrated. To calibrate the oscillator 52, there is an auto gain circuit 56. When one of the analog multiplexers 18 samples the oscillator voltage, a control line from the microprocessor also causes the auto gain circuit 56 to compare the output voltage to rectifier filter 36 with a d.c. reference voltage 58. If the voltages do not match, auto gain circuit 56 adjusts the rigidly controlled oscillator voltage accordingly.

FIG. 2 shows a close up of one of the head assemblies 16 and related structure. In each head assembly there are a plurality of probe elements 60. There may be most any number, however, for use in digital equipment it has been found that fifteen probes per head assembly is very convenient, because this enables a sixteen bit analog multiplexer 18 to sample the fifteen probe outputs and the oscillator voltage for calibration purposes. The probe assembly and work piece 62 are brought into close proximity. The probe and the work piece will, in effect, be the plates of a variable capacitor. As a probe 60 and work piece 62 come closer together the capacitance increases, and as they move further apart the capacitance decreases, producing in effect a variable capacitance. Each of the probe-work piece capacitances along with one of the capacitors 64 form a capacitive voltage divider for the oscillating voltage from the oscillator 52. Between each of these two capacitive elements is connected the input to one of amplifiers 66. It can be seen that the input to each amplifier will be a higher voltage when the effective capacitance between 60 and 62 decreases and a lower amplitude voltage when the effective capacitance between 60 and 62 increases. The output voltage from each amplifier 66 will then be a function of the capacitance between its associated probe 60 and work piece 62 which is to say, a function of the distance between one of the probes 60 and work piece 62.

It should further be appreciated that best results are obtained if capacitor 64 is temperature stable. Because capacitor 64 is used as a reference capacitance, the voltage divider is, in effect, finding the ratio of the two capacitances. Thus, the capacitance of capacitor 64 should be readily determinable and should not change during the operation from such causes as temperature fluctuations. A quartz capacitor has been found suitable for this purpose. The capacitance of capacitor 64 is normally comparable with the mean probe-work capacitance which is a function of probe size, mean probe-work piece spacing, etc., a 0.35 pf capacitance has been found to be effective.

A stable amplifier suitable for use as amplifier 66 is shown in FIG. 3. From the midpoint of the capacitive divider formed by capacitor 64 and the probe-work piece capacitance the amplifier input is connected to the gate of FET 70. In series with FET 70 is a constant current source which in the preferred embodiment is composed of a pair of FET's 72 and 74. Also in series with the constant current source and FET 70 is a line 76 connected to a positive biasing voltage, e.g., +15 volts, and a line 78 connected to a negative biasing voltage, e.g., -15 volts, along with biasing resistors 80 and 82. This first stage of amplification then has a very low input capacitance and very high impedance. With bootstrapping, careful circuit construction and guarding, the input capacitance may be kept on the order of 0.01 pf. The output of the first stage at resistor 84 presents a voltage which is a function of the probe-to-work piece spacing.

The second stage of amplification is performed by a pair of transistors 86 and 88. These two transistors provide a two stage amplification of the signal at resistor 84 and provide an output on line 90 which again is a function of the spacing between the probe and work piece.

By way of example, transistors which have been found compatible in the above system include 2N4416 for FET's 70 and 72, 2N4338 for FET 74, 2N3904 for transistor 86 and 2N3906 for transistor 88.

The diameter of the probe is determined by looking to the spacing between sampling points desired and by looking to the anticipated mean distance between the probes and the work piece. The probe should be large enough in diameter compared with the distance between the probe and the work piece that capacitive edge effects are minimized, i.e., the smaller the probe diameter, the closer the work piece should be to the probe. Thus, to improve resolution in the measurement of the probe to work piece distance, a larger diameter probe is desirable. However, the larger the probe diameter the greater the spacing between sampling positions. It can be seen that a trade-off must be reached in the area of probe diameter. Probe diameters of 0.1 inch, 0.25 inch and 0.50 inch have been found to be successful. An 0.1 inch diameter probe, for example, has been found successful in measuring a work piece to probe spacing which varies from 5 to 25 mils to an accuracy of within 10 microinches (0.010 mils).

Looking now to the theory and mathematics behind the system, as pointed out above capacitors 64 and the capacitance between each probe 60 and work piece 62 (see FIG. 2) work as a voltage divider. Thus, the voltage input into an amplifier 66 will be to the voltage of the oscillator as the capacitance of the stable reference capacitor 64 is to the total capacitance of capacitor 64 plus the probe-work piece capacitance. In mathematical equation terms, then:

where V.sub.o is the voltage out of amplifier 66, A is the amplification factor of the amplifier 66, V.sub.osc is the voltage amplitude of the oscillator output C.sub.in is the capacitance of capacitor 64, C.sub.g is the internal capacitance of the amplifier 66 and C.sub.p is the capacitance between probe 60 and work piece 62.

If one assumes that the probe 60 and work piece 62 are effectively a parallel plate capacitor, the capacitance between 60 and 62 can also be expressed as:

where K is a constant which includes both the relative dialectric constant of the medium between the probe and the work piece and the effective area of probe 60, and D is the distance from the probe to the work piece. Combining the equation 1 and equation 2 above, the distance from the probe to the work piece can be expressed as:

D=V.sub.o K/(A V.sub.osc C.sub.in -V.sub.o (C.sub.in +C.sub.g) (3)

It will be noticed in equation (3) above that except for V.sub.o all the terms are discrete physical properties of the system. These properties may be calculated or measured. Because of the accuracy needed, it has been found much faster and more accurate to measure the characteristics of each amplifier rather than calculate each of these terms individually. Thus, for each amplifier, the distance can be reduced to:

where K.sub.1 and K.sub.2 are each physically measurable characteristics of the amplifier. In particular, K.sub.1 equals K/(C.sub.in +C.sub.g) and K.sub.2 equals A V.sub.osc C.sub.in /(C.sub.in +C.sub.g). The constants K.sub.1 and K.sub.2 can be measured in a number of ways such as a least squares method or by measuring the output voltages V.sub.o for different known distances of D and solving mathematically for the values of K.sub.2 and K.sub.1. The values for K.sub.1 and K.sub.2 are the constants discussed earlier in connection with the overall system shown in FIG. 1, which constants are stored in PROM 22 connected with each individual amplifier 66.

The above explanation and preferred embodiments are shown by way of example only. It is not intended that the above description in any way limit the scope of the invention beyond the limits as set forth in the claims which follow.