The Foxboro Company

Ic Sensors Inc.

Lucas Novasensor

Edward F Koen

Robert D Vernon

Richard Tasker

Micro-machined accelerometer chips have a sensitive axis perpendicular to the principle surface of the device. In an application where the desired sensing direction is in the plane of a supporting printed circuit board, the accelerometer cannot be mounted directly on the printed circuit board and instead is mounted on a wall perpendicular to the printed circuit board. This requirement to wall-mount the sensor is eliminated by using an accelerometer chip packaged with a signal conditioning circuit in a multi layer ceramic chip carrier. Electrical connections are contained within the layers of the ceramic and terminate at a side surface of the chip carrier. Thus the accelerometer chip sits perpendicular to the printed circuit board and the ceramic chip carrier is attached directly thereto.

Side surface mounted accelerometer assembly

Vertically mounted accelerometer chip

A pressure transducer is provided for measuring pressure within a measurand environment, the transducer comprising a header which includes a substantially nondeformable molded housing formed from a first thermoplastic material defining a cavity and first and second openings into the cavity and a resilient diaphragm formed from the first thermoplastic material molded to the housing and spanning the first opening; a pressure sensing device disposed within the housing; and a pressure transfer medium disposed within the cavity so as to couple the diaphragm to the pressure sensing device.

Pressure sensor isolated within housing having integral diaphragm and

A pressure sensor sub-assembly (18) has a solid-state sensing element (22) mounted on a laminated ceramic substrate (20) and has the electrical signal contacts (22a) on the sensing element electrically connected to connector pins (24) on the substrate. A manufacturing process can fabricate a batch of sub-assemblies on a substrate structure that is sub-divided to form the separate sub-assemblies. The sensor sub-assemblies can be tested, and graded, before or after the sub-division step, and then each mounted in a housing.

Method of manufacture of pressure sensor having a laminated substrate

Pressure sensor having a laminated substrate

A solid state measurand sensor is described in which the pressure sensor element is protected from the measurand by a combination of a pressure transfer medium and a thin covering membrane. A method is described for forming the diaphragm in situ. The diaphragm material is selected from a group of materials which includes fluorosilicone, so as to substantially avoid entrapment of air or formation of voids in the pressure transfer medium such as would degrade the performance of the sensor. The pressure transfer medium is gel-like material such as dimethyl silicone and equivalents. Alternatively, the gel may be fluorosilicone and the diaphragm may be dimethyl silicone. The membrane material is chosen to be substantially impermeable to the ambients or process media being measured and also flexible, is to be poured and cured in place on the assembly during fabrication.

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Danville, CA, United States of America

Edward F Koen