Development of Optical MEMS Pressure Sensor Technology for High Temperature Applications

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Pressure sensing in plastic injection molding is critical to the quality of manufactured consumer and commercial goods and need**to be able to operate up to temperatures of 350°C and pressures up to 10,000 psi. To operate in this very harsh environment our**pressure sensors utilize a membrane to infer pressure and depending on the conditions, the membrane may be directly exposed**to the load, but in the majority of cases, pressure transfer fluids such as mercury, are often used to protect the sensor from the**high temperature of the plastic melt and to facilitate remote sensing. However, the use of pressure transfer fluids reduces the**accuracy of the sensor and mercury is restricted in Canada and many other countries.**The objective of the proposed project is to investigate the feasibility of expanding our pressure transducer production line by**offering a family of optical Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) pressure sensors able to operate at these extreme high**temperatures with improved accuracy and without the need of pressure transfer fluids. This new sensor line will also be designed**to use our proprietary harsh environment packaging assembly, thus significantly reducing the production costs and time to marketshare.**In the longer term, outcomes of the described research collaboration will result in significant cost reduction for the**development of new commercial lines of sensors, along with the development of mercury free, higher quality and more accurate**science-based sensor products.