Miniature Absolute Pressure Transducer

It is well known how expensive it is to run and conduct tests in a hypersonic wind tunnel. With air speeds of greater than mach 4 and as high as mach 10 the environment can often be very hostile. Because of the great difficulty of conducting measurements under these extreme conditions, any transducer so employed must be very small, very rugged, and able to obtain highly accurate data. It should be easy to install and remove, should not require re-calibration, should not require extensive pneumatic inter connects or long electrical wiring, and should, ideally, be low cost. Based on the results of the successful Phase I effort, Kulite is proposing to develop a miniature piezoresistive transducer of approximately .1 cubic inches in volume. The full-scale pressure of the proposed transducer will be 5 psia and suitable methods will be established to obtain accuracies of .0025 psia. The sensor will be fabricated using Kulite's latest "leadless" silicon-on-oxide technology, which enables the sensor to operate in excess of 1000°F, have a natural frequency in excess of 250 KHz and withstand shock and vibration in excess of 100g. This amplified transducer will be terminated with a miniature connector for ease in assembling and disassembling.