Micro pressure sensors are MEMS components designed to measure absolute or differential pressures. They convert physical quantities such as airflow and liquid levels into pressure values that are measured by electronic sensing circuits such as the Wheatstone bridge. Micro pressure sensors are found in cars, airplanes, mobile devices, gaming devices, athletic devices and medical devices. They are one of the fastest growing MEMS components due to their versatility, size, reliability, and application potential.
In this topic you explore applications of micro pressure sensors, how they work, and how they are fabricated. The primary activity for this topic is to build a micro PS model using materials supplied in the SCME kit "Modeling a Micro Pressure Sensor". On the model PS, you construct a Wheatstone bridge as a sensing circuit. After studying how a Wheatstone bridge works, you apply this knowledge to an analysis of your PS model. You test the model's operation as pressure is applied and develop calibration curves that show the sensor's changes in voltage as different pressures are applied.
The concepts introduced and explored in this topic can be applied to electronics, physics, materials science, chemistry, mathematics, data acquisition and analysis, and micro and nanotechnologies.
