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Publications in Scientific Journals:

S. Fricke, A. Friedberger, H. Seidel, U. Schmid:
"A robust pressure sensor for harsh environmental applications";
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 184 (2012), 16 - 21.



English abstract:
Due to economical and environmental requirements there is a strong need both to increase the efficiency
and to monitor the actual status of gas turbines, rocket engines and deep drilling systems. For
these applications a micromachined pressure sensor based on a sapphire body and a platinum thin film
metallization is presented to withstand harsh environments such as high temperature levels, aggressive
media and/or high pressure loads. For pre-evaluation purposes, a reusable packing is used enabling
the device characterization in a very efficient way up to temperatures of 440 ◦C and pressures of 30 bar,
respectively. As expected, the output signals of the Wheatstone bridge increase with higher pressures,
but decrease with enhanced temperature levels. Furthermore, these characteristics show a sensitivity of
about 10 V/(V bar) in this temperature range and a negative drift in the offset when no pressure load is
applied with increasing temperature. This effect is predominantly caused by the mismatch of the temperature
coefficients of expansion associated with the device and the housing leading to a pre-stressed
membrane.

German abstract:
Due to economical and environmental requirements there is a strong need both to increase the efficiency
and to monitor the actual status of gas turbines, rocket engines and deep drilling systems. For
these applications a micromachined pressure sensor based on a sapphire body and a platinum thin film
metallization is presented to withstand harsh environments such as high temperature levels, aggressive
media and/or high pressure loads. For pre-evaluation purposes, a reusable packing is used enabling
the device characterization in a very efficient way up to temperatures of 440 ◦C and pressures of 30 bar,
respectively. As expected, the output signals of the Wheatstone bridge increase with higher pressures,
but decrease with enhanced temperature levels. Furthermore, these characteristics show a sensitivity of
about 10 V/(V bar) in this temperature range and a negative drift in the offset when no pressure load is
applied with increasing temperature. This effect is predominantly caused by the mismatch of the temperature
coefficients of expansion associated with the device and the housing leading to a pre-stressed
membrane.


"Official" electronic version of the publication (accessed through its Digital Object Identifier - DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2012.05.043


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.