Fully calibrated MEMS vacuum transducer designed for OEM integration

Posifa Technologies offers its new PVC4100 series fully calibrated MEMS Pirani vacuum transducer. Created for cost-effective OEM integration, the device comprises a surface-mount MEMS Pirani sensor and microcontroller-based measuring electronics – all packaged in an ultra-compact PCB assembly providing a connector-terminated wire harness.

The device's sensor element is based on the company's second-generation MEMS thermal conduction chip, which functions under the principle that the thermal conductivity of gas is proportional to its vacuum pressure. The transducer's microcontroller-based measuring electronics amplify and digitise the senor's signal, supplying output via an I²C interface. To compensate for variations in thermal conductivity with changes in ambient temperature, the device provides a temperature-compensation algorithm, which takes its input from a built-in temperature sensor.

The transducer is excellent for digital vacuum gauges and leak detection in closed systems maintained under primary vacuum pumps, including vacuum-insulated panels. For these applications, the device combines low power consumption with remarkably fast response times of 250ms and a wide effective range from 0.1millitorr (0.013 Pa) to 1atm (760 torr, or 101kPa), with accuracy of 15 % from 1millitorr to 200,000 millitorr.