In a Force/Torque sensor employing strain gages, a hardware temperature compensation procedure substantially eliminates thermal drift of a plurality of load-sensing strain gages with changes in temperature, using trimming resistors and a single, unstressed strain gage. The strain gages are connected in a quarter-bridge configuration, in multiple parallel stages. An unstressed strain gage in quarter-bridge configuration is connected in parallel. Trimming resistors are added across one or more of the unstressed and load-sensing strain gages in a compensation procedure that substantially eliminates thermal drift of the load-sensing strain gages over a predefined temperature range.

An additively manufactured strain gauge resides on the surface of a component to monitor component fatigue. The strain gauge is additively manufactured, and applied to the curvature of the component surface through either a flexible substrate or through direct printing.

There is provided a flexure body configured to be used in detection of load applied in first direction and a load applied in second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The flexure body including: a flexure member; and a circuit pattern. The flexure member has a flexure area configured to be strained under load from detection object and an area different from the flexure area. The circuit pattern includes two pieces of first-direction strain sensitive elements, two pieces of second-direction strain sensitive elements, and at least one of a first-direction fixed resistance element and a second-direction fixed resistance element. Two pieces of first-direction strain sensitive elements and two pieces of second-direction strain sensitive elements are provided in the flexure area, and the at least one of the first-direction fixed resistance element and the second-direction fixed resistance element is provided in the area different from the flexure area.

A bridge driver circuit applies a bias voltage across first and second input nodes of a resistive bridge circuit configured to measure a physical property such as pressure or movement. A sensing circuit senses a bridge current that flows through the resistive bridge circuit in response to the applied bias voltage. A temperature dependent sensitivity of the resistive bridge circuit is determined by processing the sensed bridge current. A voltage output at first and second output nodes of the resistive bridge circuit is processed to determine a value of the physical property. This processing further involves applying a temperature correction in response to the determined temperature dependent sensitivity.

A sensor includes a metal object and a thin film stack formed on at least a part of a surface of the metal object. The thin film stack has an electrically isolating film and a metallic film thereon. A first electrical conductor is defined in the metallic film and is electrically isolated from the metal object and has, in a first end, a connection point connected to a first terminal via a wire and, in a second end, a sensor structure defined in the metallic film. The sensor structure includes a junction of the metallic film penetrating the electrically isolating film to the metal object forming a thermocouple and a metal object terminal connected to a connection point of the metal object via a wire. The connection points of the first electrical conductor and of the metal object are adjacent to and in an isothermal relation with each other.

A film resistor and a film sensor are disclosed. In an embodiment a film resistor includes a piezoresistive layer comprising a M.sub.1+nAX.sub.n phase, wherein M comprises at least one transition metal, A comprises a main-group element, and X comprises carbon and/or nitrogen, and wherein n=1, 2 or 3.

A bicycle component comprising a stress/strain sensor aligned according to a stress/strain to be detected, and a temperature sensor associated with said stress/strain sensor, wherein said stress/strain sensor and said temperature sensor lie in planes that do not coincide with one another and are not parallel to each another.

A pressure sensor includes a Wheatstone bridge and a heat emitting diode. The Wheatstone bridge includes a first resistor, a second resistor, a third resistor, and a fourth resistor. The first resistor, the second resistor, the third resistor, and the fourth resistor are coupled to form a loop, the first resistor, the second resistor, and the third resistor are fixed resistors, and the fourth resistor is a varistor. A first output terminal of the Wheatstone bridge is coupled to a first terminal of the heat emitting diode, and a second output terminal of the Wheatstone bridge and a second terminal of the heat emitting diode are configured to output an electrical signal.

A strain sensor is based on a self-biasing reference circuit that reaches an operating state that, at least at first order, is at least supply-voltage independent. The strain sensor provides an output signal that is defined by the operating state of the self-biasing reference circuit. At least one component in the self-biasing reference circuit has an electrical characteristic that depends on a strain to which the at least one component is subjected. This makes that the operating state of the self-biasing reference circuit depends on the strain. As a result, the output signal of the strain sensor varies as a function of the strain to which the at least one component is subjected.

An apparatus and a method for force sensing, and an electronic device. The apparatus includes at least one first sensor, at least one second sensor, and a comparator. The at least one first sensor generates a first signal, the at least one second sensor generates a second signal, and the comparator receives both the first signal and the second signal. The first signal is determined by deformation of a deformable portion and temperature at the deformable portion, and the second signal is determined by the temperature at the deformable portion. The comparator determines whether the deformable portion deforms based on the first signal, the second signal, and the threshold signal, and further generates the third signal which is in the active state in response to the determination being positive. The apparatus can make an accurate response when the deformation of the deformable portion serves as an input operation.