Posifa Technologies has announced the new PVC4100 series of fully calibrated MEMS Pirani vacuum sensors. This solution consists of a surface mount MEMS Pirani sensor and a microcontroller-based measurement circuit designed for cost-effective OEM integration, all packaged on an ultra-compact PCB with connector-terminated wiring harnesses superior.
The PVC4100 sensor element is based on Posifa's second-generation MEMS thermal conductivity chip. Its working principle is: the higher the vacuum degree, the worse the thermal conductivity of the gas, and the less the heat loss of the thermal conductivity sensor. The amplifier circuit based on the microcontroller amplifies the tiny signal of the sensor chip, digitizes it, and then outputs it through the I²C interface. In order to compensate for changes in thermal conductivity caused by changes in ambient temperature, the device has a temperature compensation algorithm. After obtaining temperature data from the built-in temperature sensor, temperature compensation is performed to correct the interference of ambient temperature to the sensor.
This newly released PVC4100 sensor is ideal for digital vacuum measurement and leak detection in closed systems maintained by the main vacuum pump, such as in vacuum insulation panels, as well as digital vacuum gauges. For these applications, the sensor combines low power consumption with an extremely fast response time of 250 milliseconds, and a wide effective range from 0.013 Pa to 101 kPa, with 15% accuracy from 1 mTorr to 200,000 mTorr.
