According to an aspect there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one electrode and a movable sensor membrane, wherein the apparatus comprises means for: measuring a voltage or a current; determining an amount of external pressure based on the measured voltage or current; based on the determined amount of external pressure, providing electrostatic feedback force such that the movable sensor membrane is undeflected; and determining a correlation between the electrostatic force feedback and the external pressure.

Improvements in thin film sensors are disclosed. These can be used for aircraft applications. Dielectric isolation washers can be provided between a pressure sensor and an exterior metal housing of a sensor assembly. In this manner, high voltage inputs from a lightning strike or other source that reach the sensor housing are not transmitted to the sensor. Dielectric washers, insulators, and potting compounds can thus isolate a metal thin film pressure sensor from adjacent metal components (e.g., using non-conducting insulating materials like Torlon, zirconia and nylon). Besides their high dielectric strength, these materials exhibit compressive strength and resistance to wear, creep and corrosion. Desirable thicknesses for these components are provided. The described thin film pressure sensor embodiments can attain a dielectric rating of 1500 VAC.

A sensor apparatus includes at least one substrate layer of an elastically deformable material, the substrate layer extending longitudinally between spaced apart ends thereof. A conductive layer is attached to and extends longitudinally between the spaced apart ends of the at least one substrate layer. The conductive layer includes an electrically conductive material adapted to form a strain gauge having an electrical resistance that varies based on deformation of the conductive layer in at least one direction.

A pressure sensor to measure low pressures, including: a body extending in a plane, the body including a measurement zone situated at an end of the body, a connection zone situated at another end of the body, the measurement zone including a cavity delimited by a wall, that is deformable under effect of a difference in pressure between inside of the cavity and an external environment, the deformable wall situated at rest in a plane parallel to the plane of the sensor; a mechanism measuring deformation of the deformable wall, the measurement mechanism situated in the cavity; an electrical connection connecting the measurement mechanism to the connection zone, the electrical connection arranged in the body.

A pressure sensor includes a diaphragm having a first principal surface and a second principal surface, a semiconductor chip in which resistors constituting a strain gauge are formed, a first structural body having one end coupled to a center of a second principal surface of the diaphragm and the other end coupled to the other surface of the semiconductor chip, and at least two second structural bodies disposed in two straight lines, orthogonal to each other, that pass through the center of the diaphragm in plan view so as to be disposed separately from the first structural body, and having one ends coupled to the second principal surface and the other ends coupled to the other surface of the semiconductor chip, in which the resistors are formed in regions between the first structural body and the second structural bodies in plan view in the semiconductor chip.

To suppress variations in the shift amount of the zero point of a sensor output when a pipe is connected to a pressure sensor via a clamp. A pressure sensor includes two semiconductor chips in two straight lines, orthogonal to each other, that pass through a center of a diaphragm in plan view, two resistors in the region between two supporting members supporting one semiconductor chip, and two other resistors in the region between two other supporting members supporting the other semiconductor chip.

In an embodiment, a pressure sensor system includes a pressure sensor element with a flexible plate, wherein the pressure sensor element is a piezoresistive sensor element and a support element on which the pressure sensor element is arranged, wherein a flow channel configured to supply a medium to the flexible plate runs in the support element, wherein the flow channel has at least one sub-section, a longitudinal direction of which running perpendicularly below the flexible plate, and wherein a channel cross section of the at least one sub-section of the flow channel is at no point within the sub-section of the flow channel smaller than an area of the flexible plate.

A multifunctional sensor has the a process connection housing with a process-side opening, pressure measurement cell with a measurement membrane arranged in the process connection housing, which closes the opening in the process connection housing and which has strain measurement resistors on its side facing away from the process, where a magnet assembly is arranged in the process connection housing, the magnetic field of which is concentrated on a central region of the measurement membrane and penetrates through this into the process, electrodes lying diametrically opposite one another are formed outside the central region on the side of the measurement membrane facing the process, and where the process connection housing contains electronic measuring equipment which is formed to interact with the strain measurement resistors and the electrodes for pressure measurement and magnetic-inductive flow measurement.

A differential MEMS pressure sensor includes a topping wafer with a top side and a bottom side, a diaphragm wafer having a top side connected to the bottom side of the topping wafer and a bottom side, and a backing wafer having a top side connected to the bottom side of the diaphragm wafer and a bottom side. The topping wafer includes a first cavity formed in the bottom side of the topping wafer. The diaphragm wafer includes a diaphragm, a second cavity formed in the bottom side of the diaphragm wafer underneath the diaphragm, an outer portion surrounding the diaphragm, and a trench formed in the top side of the diaphragm wafer and positioned in the outer portion surrounding the diaphragm.

Disclosed is a pressure sensing element that is formed using a semiconductor substrate, the pressure sensing element including: a frame; a diaphragm that is supported by the frame; and a piezoresistor that is arranged on the diaphragm. The diaphragm includes a trench and a plurality of beams, the beams are arranged such that the beams connect a portion around an edge of the diaphragm to a portion around a center of the diaphragm and the beams cross each other in the portion around the center of the diaphragm, and a beam that is each of the beams includes a narrow portion that has a first width and a wide portion that has a second width wider than the first width.