Silicon is very elastic, and stronger than steel. Therefore, the material is extremely well suited for the fabrication of flexible membranes, which can be used as pressure sensors.

SINTEF has experience with feasibility studies, design, processing and characterization of capacitive and piezoresistive pressure sensors for different pressure ranges and with various sets of environmental demands. Our large experience in FEM simulations of mechanical, thermal, electrostatic, and other properties ensures that the whole sensor system is optimized with respect to its application.

Some of the designed pressure sensors are manufactured at MiNaLab. However, SINTEF also provides pure design services, and we have designed components for production in the foundries of Tronics (MEMSOI MPW), Infineon SensorNor (MultiMEMS), and the polymer process of ThinXXS. The use of foundries enables swift transfer to large-scale production if desired.

Contact person: Sigurd T. Moe

Piezoresistive pressure sensor with two membranes of different thicknesses, one situated within the other. The patented design gives a resolution of 9 or 11 µV/V•Pa, depending on the boss radius. At the same time, the burst pressure is above ±1 bar.
Left: absolute pressure sensor with boss radius of 500 µm. Right: differential pressure sensor with boss radius of 300 µm.

Published January 8, 2008

A capacitive differential pressure sensor with measurement range 0-1 bar and burst pressure above 10 bar. The sensor is designed to operate at 1000 bar absolute pressure and 180oC. The sensor is designed and fabricated at MiNaLab.

Pressure sensor technology can also be used to produce microbalances! This LEGO-man wants to weigh his cup on a microbalance with piezoresistive read-out, designed for measuring weights around 100mg. The sensor is designed at MiNaLab and fabricated in the MultiMEMS foundry.