I've got a somewhat uniques application and at the last minute I remembered that the inductance sensors might be a perfect fit.
I'm building an automated PCB test station. The boards will be on a panel arranged in a 5x5 array. The board has 50mil diameter test point (8 total spaced on a 100mil 2x4 grid). My goal is to move the probing head down towards the PCB panel and use the sensor to know how far down the PCB is. I'm thinking of using this for other applications so adding a kind of non-contact Z-Axis probe could be a beneficial feature.
I'm completing a 2-layer board design that will be fitted onto the probing head. I've got some room to add an inductive sensor circuit but the smaller the better. This might be a crazy idea but I thought I'd post and get some feedback and guidance to see if I could add in a circuit.
Thanks,
George
P.S. Even if the idea doesn't work out well at this point I'd like to know what the best part and coil geometry would be. That way I can add the circuit and if it doesn't end up working I've only lost some PCB space.