US Patent:
20160230625, Aug 11, 2016
Inventors:
- San Jose CA, US
Brian Wayne HOLMES - Ottawa, CA
Rajagopalan DHESIKAN - San Jose CA, US
Mei Ho STINSON - Fremont CA, US
Dung Dang HUYNH - Campbell CA, US
Jose Luis Tenorio CORREA - Milpitas CA, US
Shaily DEVA - Saratoga CA, US
John Nashed HANNA - Austin TX, US
Assignee:
FLEXTRONICS AP, LLC - San Jose CA
International Classification:
F01M 11/12
F01M 11/00
G01F 23/26
G07C 5/02
Abstract:
Embodiments provide an oil pan that includes an oil pan having a reservoir configured to hold oil and defined by one or more oil pan walls and an oil pan bottom. The oil pan includes one or more capacitance sensors coupled to a portion of the oil pan walls and configured to sense a capacitance. The oil pan includes a capacitance measuring unit electrically connected to the one or more sensors via one or more conductors and configured to receive each of the sensed capacitances via the one or more conductors and determine capacitance values for each of the sensed capacitances. The oil pan also includes a processor configured to receive the capacitance values and determine the oil level in the oil pan based on the capacitance values.