A thermal type sensor molded from a mold resin having an opening has a problem in that the residual stress of the mold resin in the opening causes peeling at the interface having poor adhesion. A physical quantity sensor has a construction having a semiconductor chip having a detector unit 3, a frame 8a on which the semiconductor chip is mounted, a mold resin portion 10 which encapsulates the semiconductor chip and the frame and has an opening through which the detector unit is exposed to the outside, and a stress absorbing layer 6 which is formed between an end of the opening in the mold resin portion and a wiring layer formed in the detector unit, and which is formed from a metal material that absorbs a stress from the end.

A physical quantity measuring device includes a chip package and a casing. The casing fixedly stores the chip package. The casing includes a first bypass passage allowing a gas to be measured taken from a main passage, to flow in a first measuring unit, and a second bypass passage allowing the gas to be measured taken from the main passage, to flow in a second measuring unit. The chip package is configured to dispose a signal processing unit between the first and second measuring units. The casing has a cooling unit that allows the gas to be measured from the main passage to flow between the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit, and cooling the signal processing unit.

The design and structure of a vortex flow meter with large dynamic range utilizing a micro-machined thermal flow sensing device for simultaneously measurement of volumetric flowrate via vortex street frequency as well as mass flowrate is exhibited in this disclosure. The micro-machined thermal flow sensing device is placed at the central point of a channel inside the bluff body where the channel direction is not perpendicular to the direction of fluid flow in the conduit. The thermal flow sensing device is operating in a time-of-flight principle for acquiring the vortex street frequency such that any surface conditions of the device shall not have significant impact to the measured values. With a temperature thermistor on the same micro-machined thermal flow sensing device, the vortex flow meter shall be able to output the fluid temperature as well as the fluid pressure.

A sensor device for determining at least one parameter of a fluid medium flowing through a duct, e.g., an intake air mass flow of an internal combustion engine, includes: a sensor housing, e.g., a sensor plug that is placed or that can be placed into a flow tube, in which the duct is fashioned; and at least one sensor chip situated in the duct for determining the parameter of the fluid medium. The sensor chip has a sensor area. The sensor housing has an inlet into the duct that is oriented opposite a main direction of flow of the fluid medium, and has at least one outlet from the duct. The sensor area is covered at least partly by an electrically conductive layer.

An electronic utility gas meter using MEMS thermal time-of-flight flow sensor to meter gas custody transfer mass flowrate and an additional MEMS gas sensor to measure the combustion gas composition for the correlations to the acquisition of gas high heat value simultaneously is disclosed in the present invention. The meter is designed for the applications in the city utility gas consumption in compliance with the current tariff while metering the true thermal value of the delivered gases for future upgrades. Data safety, remote data communication, and other features with state-of-the-art electronics are also included in the design.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a highly accurate and highly reliable physical quantity sensor wherein an error due to stress applied to a sensor element of the physical quantity sensor is reduced. This physical quantity sensor device is provided with: a hollow section formed in a Si substrate; an insulating film covering the hollow section; and a heating section formed in the insulating film. The sensor device is also provided with a detection element that detects the temperature of the insulating film above the hollow section, the detection element is provided with a first silicon element and a second silicon element, and the first silicon element and the second silicon element are doped with different impurities, respectively.

A thermal sensor comprises an active element (41), e.g., a heater or cooler, at least one temperature sensor (31), and processing circuitry (50). The processing circuitry causes a change of power supplied to the active element (41). It then determines, at a plurality of times, a thermal parameter based on an output signal of the temperature sensors and analyzes the transient behavior of the thermal parameter. Based on this analysis, the processing circuitry determines a contamination signal that is indicative of a contamination on a sensing surface of the thermal sensor. If the thermal sensor comprises a plurality of temperature sensors arranged in different sectors of the sensing surface, a multi-sector thermal signal can be derived from the outputs of the sensors, and determination of the contamination signal can be based on the multi-sector thermal signal.

A sensor is provided for determining at least one parameter of a fluid medium flowing through a measurement channel, in particular an intake air mass flow of an internal combustion engine. The sensor has a sensor housing, in particular a plug-in sensor that is inserted into or is insertable into a flow tube, in which sensor a measurement channel is fashioned, and has at least one sensor chip situated in the measurement channel for determining the parameter of the fluid medium. The sensor housing has an electronics compartment for accommodating an electronics module and has an electronics compartment cover for closing the electronics compartment. The electronics compartment cover has, at least in part, electrically conductive properties. For example, the electronics compartment cover is placed onto the electrical ground of the sensor and, viewed in projection, partly or completely covers the sensor chip.

Degradation of reliability of a thermal fluid flow sensor, caused by generation of a crack in an insulating film is prevented in the thermal fluid flow sensor including a detection section and a circuit section formed on the same substrate when stress adjustment is performed by forming a deep concave portion in an interlayer insulating film in the detection section and forming the insulating film having a tensile stress thereon. As a means thereof, stair-like step is provided in a side wall of a concave portion, formed in the interlayer insulating film on a diaphragm. Accordingly, each depth of a first concave portion and a second concave portion, which form the concave portion, is reduced, and coatability of the insulating film for the stress adjustment, which covers a side wall and a bottom face of the concave portion, is improved.

Methods and apparatuses associated with an example flow sensing device are provided. In some examples, the flow sensing device may include a flow cap component and a sensor component. In some examples, the flow cap component may include a heating element disposed in a first layer of the flow cap component. In some examples, the sensor component may include at least one thermal sensing element disposed in a second layer of the sensor component. In some examples, the first layer and the second layer are noncoplanar. In some examples, the flow cap component may be bonded to a first surface of the sensor component to form a flow channel. In some examples, the first layer and the second layer may be noncoplanar and separated by the flow channel.