Epson Toyocom has developed a small, high-performance quartz crystal atmospheric pressure sensor that employs an original pressure-sensing structure using QMEMS technology. The new sensor has a cubic volume of 12.5cc and weighs 15g and is accurate to within 10Pa, or about 1/10,000 of one bar, and boasts a resolution of 0.1Pa. The pressure sensor will be available from Rutronik.
Epson Toyocom's new crystal pressure sensor provides both high accuracy and high resolution in a small package, due to a stable oscillating frequency provided by the tuning-fork crystal unit, which serves as a pressure-sensing element, and to a newly developed original pressure-sensing structure made possible by QMEMS technology.
The performance and features of the new pressure sensor can help device designers to reduce the size and improve the performance of devices for a variety of meteorological and security applications. Among the applications will be: accurate measurement of barometric pressure in meteorological observations; measuring differences in elevation (in approximately one centimeter increments) using barometric pressure; and detecting slight changes in internal pressure resulting from the opening and closing of inside doors and windows.
