Integration of Triaxial Hall-Effect Sensor Technology for Gear Position Sensing in Commercial Vehicle Transmissions

The proliferation of microprocessor architecture onboard transmission control modules has seen sensors play a crucial role in feedback control. This paper presents a linear position sensor module with a Hall-effect element for gear position sensing in a commercial vehicle transmission. Finite-element analysis model of the sensor performance has been performed, and the model has been validated against experimental data from the sensor prototype. The significance of this paper is that a low-cost linear position sensor module has been developed with high linearity, high output resolution (37.5 μm), and high accuracy (0.25 mm) for gear position sensing. The complete sensor system is designed for ease of manufacturing and application in harsh transmission environments, such as high-temperature profiles ranging from -40 °C to +135 °C.