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CapSense Technology
AN64846 - Getting Started with CapSense
®
Doc. No. 001-64846 Rev. *X
29
When liquid droplets are present on the touch surface and if the shield electrode is implemented, the CapSense system
can reliably work even in the presence of liquid droplets and report sensor ON/OFF status. When there is a liquid flow
or a liquid pool on the touch surface, the CapSense system detects the liquid by using a guard sensor and disables the
scanning for all other sensors in the system to prevent false triggers. Therefore, when there is a liquid flow or liquid
pool on the touch surface, the CapSense system will not detect a finger touch as long as the liquid is present on the
touch surface.
Figure 2-32. Shield Electrode (SH) and Guard Sensor (GUARD) Connected to CapSense Controller
C
S
1
C
S
3
C
S
2
SH
GUARD
Shield Electrode
Guard Sensor
Button Sensor
560
Ω
5
6
0
Ω
5
6
0
Ω
5
6
0
Ω
CapSense
Controller
2.8.1 Effect of Liquid Droplets and Liquid Stream on CapSense
To understand the effect of a liquid droplet or a liquid stream on a CapSense sensor, consider a CapSense system in
which the hatch fill around the sensor is connected to ground, as
(a) shows. Surrounding the sensor with
a hatch fill connected to ground improves the noise immunity of the sensor. The parasitic capacitance of sensor is
denoted as C
S
Figure 2-33. Typical CapSense System Layout
BTN1
Hatch Fill
Connected to
Ground
Button Sensor
560
Ω
CapSense
Controller
CapSense
Controller
560
Ω
C
S
(a)
(b)
, when a liquid droplet falls on the touch surface, due to its conductive nature, it provides a
strong coupling path for the electric field lines to return to ground and therefore adds a capacitance C
LD
in parallel to
C
P
. When the sensor is charged and discharged, the capacitance C
LD
draws some amount of charge from the AMUX
bus because of the nonzero voltage difference across the capacitance C
LD
. This increases the overall capacitance seen
by the CapSense circuitry and results in an increase in the sensor raw count. In some cases, where the liquid is highly
conductive (salty water or water with high mineral content), the increase in raw count when a liquid droplet falls on the
touch surface might be equal to the increase in raw count due to a finger touch and thus causes false triggers, as
Figure 2-34. Capacitance Added by Liquid Droplet when the Hatch Fill Is Connected to Ground
BTN1
Hatch Fill
Connected to
Ground
Button Sensor
560
Ω
CapSense
Controller
CapSense
Controller
560
Ω
C
S
C
LD
Liquid Droplet
C
S
– Sensor Parasitic Capacitance