Pinggang Jia

A High Temperature Capacitive Pressure Sensor Based on Alumina Ceramic for in Situ Measurement at 600 °C

In response to the growing demand for in situ measurement of pressure in high-temperature environments, a high temperature capacitive pressure sensor is presented in this paper. A high-temperature ceramic material-alumina is used for the fabrication of the sensor, and the prototype sensor consists of an inductance, a variable capacitance, and a sealed cavity integrated in the alumina ceramic substrate using a thick-film integrated technology. The experimental results show that the proposed sensor has stability at 850 °C for more than 20 min. The characterization in high-temperature and pressure environments successfully demonstrated sensing capabilities for pressure from 1 to 5 bar up to 600 °C, limited by the sensor test setup. At 600 °C, the sensor achieves a linear characteristic response, and the repeatability error, hysteresis error and zero-point drift of the sensor are 8.3%, 5.05% and 1%, respectively.

A High-Temperature Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor with an Integrated Signal-Conditioning Circuit

This paper focuses on the design and fabrication of a high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensor with an integrated signal-conditioning circuit, which consists of an encapsulated pressure-sensitive chip, a temperature compensation circuit and a signal-conditioning circuit. A silicon on insulation (SOI) material and a standard MEMS process are used in the pressure-sensitive chip fabrication, and high-temperature electronic components are adopted in the temperature-compensation and signal-conditioning circuits. The entire pressure sensor achieves a hermetic seal and can be operated long-term in the range of −50 °C to 220 °C. Unlike traditional pressure sensor output voltage ranges (in the dozens to hundreds of millivolts), the output voltage of this sensor is from 0 V to 5 V, which can significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio and measurement accuracy in practical applications of long-term transmission based on experimental verification. Furthermore, because this flexible sensor’s output voltage is adjustable, general follow-up pressure transmitter devices for voltage converters need not be used, which greatly reduces the cost of the test system. Thus, the proposed high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensor with an integrated signal-conditioning circuit is expected to be highly applicable to pressure measurements in harsh environments.

An Insertable Passive LC Pressure Sensor Based on an Alumina Ceramic for In Situ Pressure Sensing in High-Temperature Environments

Pressure measurements in high-temperature applications, including compressors, turbines, and others, have become increasingly critical. This paper proposes an implantable passive LC pressure sensor based on an alumina ceramic material for in situ pressure sensing in high-temperature environments. The inductance and capacitance elements of the sensor were designed independently and separated by a thermally insulating material, which is conducive to reducing the influence of the temperature on the inductance element and improving the quality factor of the sensor. In addition, the sensor was fabricated using thick film integrated technology from high-temperature materials that ensure stable operation of the sensor in high-temperature environments. Experimental results showed that the sensor accurately monitored pressures from 0 bar to 2 bar at temperatures up to 800 °C. The sensitivity, linearity, repeatability error, and hysteretic error of the sensor were 0.225 MHz/bar, 95.3%, 5.5%, and 6.2%, respectively.

Review of Research Status and Development Trends of Wireless Passive LC Resonant Sensors for Harsh Environments

Measurement technology for various key parameters in harsh environments (e.g., high-temperature and biomedical applications) continues to be limited. Wireless passive LC resonant sensors offer long service life and can be suitable for harsh environments because they can transmit signals without battery power or wired connections. Consequently, these devices have become the focus of many current research studies. This paper addresses recent research, key technologies, and practical applications relative to passive LC sensors used to monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, and harmful gases in harsh environments. The advantages and disadvantages of various sensor types are discussed, and prospects and challenges for future development of these sensors are presented.

A Wide-Range Displacement Sensor Based on Plastic Fiber Macro-Bend Coupling

This paper proposes the strategy of fabricating an all fiber wide-range displacement sensor based on the macro-bend coupling effect which causes power transmission between two twisted bending plastic optical fibers (POF), where the coupling power changes with the bending radius of the fibers. For the sensor, a structure of two twisted plastic fibers is designed with the experimental platform that we constructed. The influence of external temperature and displacement speed shifts are reported. The displacement sensor performance is the sensor test at different temperatures and speeds. The sensor was found to be satisfactory at both room temperature and 70 °C when the displacement is up to 140 mm. The output power is approximately linear to a displacement of 110 mm–140 mm under room temperature and 2 mm/s speed at 19.805 nW/mm sensitivity and 0.12 mm resolution. The simple structure of the sensor makes it reliable for other applications and further utilizations, promising a bright future.

A noncontact wireless passive radio frequency (RF) resonant pressure sensor with optimized design for applications in high-temperature environments

A noncontact wireless passive pressure sensor based on alumina ceramic for pressure measurement is presented in this paper. A faithful pressure signal in harsh environment is captured through wireless sensing, and a novel antenna design method is developed to increase the measurement distance between the antenna and the sensor. The sensor is fabricated using a novel no-co-fired technology, and the properties of the alumina ceramic and platinum ensure the feasibility of the sensor in high-temperature environments. The experimental results show that the coupled distance between the antenna and the sensor can be up to 5.5 cm, and the designed sensor, featuring improved structural parameters, has a high responsivity (15.5 kHz kPa−1) in a pressure environment at room temperature. The sensor can be coupled with the antenna at 850 °C, which verifies the feasibility in high-temperature environments.

Passive Resistor Temperature Compensation for a High-Temperature Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor

The main limitation of high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensors is the variation of output voltage with operating temperature, which seriously reduces their measurement accuracy. This paper presents a passive resistor temperature compensation technique whose parameters are calculated using differential equations. Unlike traditional experiential arithmetic, the differential equations are independent of the parameter deviation among the piezoresistors of the microelectromechanical pressure sensor and the residual stress caused by the fabrication process or a mismatch in the thermal expansion coefficients. The differential equations are solved using calibration data from uncompensated high-temperature piezoresistive pressure sensors. Tests conducted on the calibrated equipment at various temperatures and pressures show that the passive resistor temperature compensation produces a remarkable effect. Additionally, a high-temperature signal-conditioning circuit is used to improve the output sensitivity of the sensor, which can be reduced by the temperature compensation. Compared to traditional experiential arithmetic, the proposed passive resistor temperature compensation technique exhibits less temperature drift and is expected to be highly applicable for pressure measurements in harsh environments with large temperature variations.

Interface Characteristics of Sapphire Direct Bonding for High-Temperature Applications

In this letter, we present a sapphire direct bonding method using plasma surface activation, hydrophilic pre-bonding, and high temperature annealing. Through the combination of sapphire inductively coupled plasma etching and the direct bonding process, a vacuum-sealed cavity employable for high temperature applications is achieved. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) research of the bonding interface indicates that the two sapphire pieces are well bonded and the cavity structure stays intact. Moreover, the tensile testing shows that the bonding strength of the bonding interface is in excess of 7.2 MPa. The advantage of sapphire direct bonding is that it is free from the various problems caused by the mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between different materials. Therefore, the bonded vacuum-sealed cavity can be potentially further developed into an all-sapphire pressure sensor for high temperature applications.

MEMS fiber-optic Fabry-Perot pressure sensor for high temperature application

We design and demonstrate a fiber-optic Fabry–Perot pressure sensor (FOFPPS) for high-temperature sensing by employing micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology. The FOFPPS is fabricated by anodically bonding the silicon wafer and the Pyrex glass together and fixing the facet of the optical fiber in parallel with the silicon surface by glass frit and organic adhesive. The silicon wafer can be reduced through dry etching technology to construct the sensitive diaphragm. The length of the cavity changes with the deformation of the diaphragm due to the loaded pressure, which leads to a wavelength shift of the interference spectrum. The pressure can be gauged by measuring the wavelength shift. The pressure experimental results show that the sensor has linear pressure sensitivities ranging from 0 kPa to 600 kPa at temperature range between 20°C to 300°C. The pressure sensitivity at 300°C is approximately 27.63 pm/kPa. The pressure sensitivities gradually decrease with increasing the temperature. The sensor also has a linear thermal drift when temperature changes from 20°C - 300°C.

Diaphragm-Free Fiber-Optic Fabry-Perot Interferometric Gas Pressure Sensor for High Temperature Application

A diaphragm-free fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometric gas pressure sensor is designed and experimentally verified in this paper. The FP cavity was fabricated by inserting a well-cut fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and hollow silica tube (HST) from both sides into a silica casing. The FP cavity length between the ends of the SMF and HST changes with the gas density. Using temperature decoupling method to improve the accuracy of the pressure sensor in high temperature environments. An experimental system for measuring the pressure under different temperatures was established to verify the performance of the sensor. The pressure sensitivity of the FP gas pressure sensor is 4.28 nm/MPa with a high linear pressure response over the range of 0.1–0.7 MPa, and the temperature sensitivity is 14.8 pm/°C under the range of 20–800 °C. The sensor has less than 1.5% non-linearity at different temperatures by using temperature decoupling method. The simple fabrication and low-cost will help sensor to maintain the excellent features required by pressure measurement in high temperature applications.