The flow rate measuring apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention is a flow rate measuring apparatus that intermittently measures the flow rate of a fluid, comprising a heating unit for heating the fluid; a control unit that controls a drive voltage for driving the heating unit, or the interval at which the drive voltage is applied, to the desired value; a temperature sensing unit that senses information about the temperature of the heated fluid; and a flow rate measurement unit that measures the flow rate of the fluid on the basis of the sensing signal outputted from the temperature sensing unit, wherein, in intermittently measuring the flow rate, the control unit varies the heating amount of the heating unit in each measurement by varying the interval at which the drive voltage is applied.

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.

Proposed is an air velocity sensor (meter) for measuring the flow velocity of a fluid, particularly, the air velocity of gas. More specifically, proposed is a technical field related to an air velocity sensor which measures air velocity or temperature through the heat transfer of a fluid by using a hot wire, that is, a heating element, of a small cross-section, and which expands the surface areas of a temperature sensor, the heating element, and a soldering part in order to further improve the accuracy of a hot wire flow velocity sensor having higher accuracy, even with respect to a low flow velocity, than a general mechanical anemometer, so as to minimize resistance, and thus can easily measure very low flow rates by inducing a quick change in a current to quickly respond to minute changes in resistance and sensitively operate, that is, by improving reaction speed.

Methods and apparatuses associated with flow sensing devices are provided. An example flow sensing device includes a flow cap component and a sensor component. The flow cap component or sensor component may include a heating element. The flow cap component can at least partially define a flow channel configured for a media to flow therethrough. The heater element may be orthogonal or perpendicular to the flow channel. The sensor component may include at least one thermal sensing element disposed upstream of the heater element and at least one thermal sensing element disposed downstream of the heater element. The sensor component may include two or more thermal sensing elements disposed in either the upstream direction or downstream direction of the heater element. Thermal sensing elements may be spaced different distances from the heater element to increase the accuracy and precision of flow rate measurement at low flow rates.

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.

A fluid sensor for sensing a concentration or composition of a fluid, the sensor comprising: a semiconductor substrate comprising a first etched portion; a dielectric region located on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the dielectric region comprises a first dielectric membrane located over the first etched portion of the semiconductor substrate; a first heating element located within the first dielectric membrane; and a second heating element; wherein the first heating element is arranged to thermally shield the second heating element from ambient temperature changes; wherein the first heating element or the second heating element is configured to operate as a temperature sensing element; wherein the first heating element is configured to operate in a constant temperature or constant resistance mode; wherein the second heating element is configured to operate in a constant current or constant voltage mode or constant power mode; and wherein the sensor is configured to determine a thermal conductivity of the fluid using the temperature sensing element to determine said concentration or composition of the fluid.

A device for measuring the speed or flow of a gas at a temperature different from an ambient temperature is provided, which includes: a first platform suspended by first arms above a support designed to be kept at an ambient temperature, the first arms comprising thermoelectric strips designed to supply a first voltage based on the difference between the temperatures of the first platform and the support; and a processing unit designed to supply the speed or flow measurement on the basis of the first voltage, the gas temperature and the ambient temperature.

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.

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 sensor of a fluid sensor system includes an outer peripheral sensor unit including three or more sensor pairs to surround and sandwich the heating element. The computing device of the system includes a first identification unit identifies a sensor pair in which an output difference between an output value corresponding to a temperature detected by one temperature sensor of the sensor pair and an output value corresponding to a temperature detected by the other temperature sensor of the sensor pair is largest, a second identification unit identifies other sensor pairs adjacent to the identified sensor pair in the circumferential direction, and a flow direction estimation unit estimates the flow direction of the fluid on the basis of the output difference in the sensor pair having the largest output difference and output differences in the other sensor pairs adjacent to the sensor pair in the circumferential direction.