Testing under pressure
The system was developed in collaboration with DELTA and will be used for testing devices such as pressure sensors for plane and truck tyres, as well as sensors which react to changes in hydraulic systems. These sensors need to detect small changes in pressure and must be able to withstand up to 30bar without failing.
The chamber can be filled with a non-aggressive or toxic gas via special flanges in the walls. A thermal chuck enables tests from -40degreesC to +160degreesC. Humidity can also be controlled from 0% to 85% and the user can choose whether tests need to be performed in darkness or whether to add light as part of the test environment.
Additionally it can be used to test special microsystems containing both pressure and inertial sensors when an acceleration chuck is used within the chamber. Such a microsystem would, for instance, only start transmitting the tyre pressure value to the car's main computer when it detects that the car is moving. With special wafer frames the system is able to test diced wafers on blue foil.
Jens Branebjerg, MEMS business manager at DELTA, comments: "Because of legislation changes concerning commercial tyres, we are seeing an increase in demand for test services for pressure sensors. Because these need to be as inexpensive as possible, wafer level testing that avoids the costly packaging of defective sensors is very attractive."
The PAP200 is immediately available at DELTA for tests.
