Sensor comprising a surface wave component

• US 7,576,469 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kistler Holding AG
• Original Assignee: Kistler Holding AG
• Inventors: Peter, Reto
• Primary Examiner(s): Dougherty; Thomas M
• Application Number:
  US11/547,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20080127730A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 310/311, 310/313.R, 310/313.D, 310/319, 310/338, 310/339
• US Class Current: 310/311
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 3/022 having an ideal characteristic, map or correction data stored in a digital memory

Abstract

The invention relates to a sensor (4) comprising a surface wave component (2) containing information relating to the sensitivity of the sensor. Said information can be consulted by means of a conventional measuring line (6) between an evaluation appliance (7) and the sensor (4). As said component (2) only comprises a small amount of information, for example three figures, it (2) can be very small, such that it can be integrated into a small sensor (4). The read sensor sensitivity can be automatically adjusted in the evaluation appliance (7). The information can be encoded on the surface wave component (2) by means of various reflectors (11) that can be frequency-selective.

Claims

1. A sensor (4) for detecting and transmitting measurement values via a measurement line (6) to an evaluation device (7) comprising a coded component (2), wherein the coding can be directly assigned to sensor-specific sensitivity values and the component (2) is a surface wave component and the coding can be scanned via the measurement line (6) in a similar manner as the measurement values.

2. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the coding data and the measurement values can be transmitted simultaneously via the measurement line (6).

3. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the sensor (4) is high-temperature resistant.

4. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) is connected to the sensor line (5) by means of electromagnetic coupling (3).

5. A sensor according to claim 4, wherein the electromagnetic coupling (3) is inductive.

6. A sensor according to claim 4, wherein the electromagnetic coupling (3) is capacitive.

7. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) in its largest dimension is not longer than 5 mm.

8. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the coding of the surface wave component (2) has not more than 20 bits.

9. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) comprises at least two reflectors (11) for coding the sensitivities.

10. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) comprises at least one reflector (11) for coding the range value of the sensitivities.

11. A sensor according to claim 10, wherein the surface wave component (2) comprises at least two calibration reflectors (13) for calibrating the coding.

12. A sensor according to claim 11, wherein the calibration reflectors (13) generate stronger signal responses than the other reflectors 11.

13. A sensor according to claim 11, wherein by means of the calibration reflectors (13) the temperature in the sensor can be detected.

14. A sensor according to claim 11, wherein by means of the calibration reflectors (13) pressure, elongation, acceleration, force and/or moments can be detected.

15. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the coding comprises information with respect to at least one range and/or one correction.

16. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) at the same time is the measurement recorder (1) of the sensor.

17. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is a piezo-electric, piezo-resistive, or optical sensor.

18. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) comprises frequency-selective reflectors (2) for at least two different frequency ranges.

19. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) in its largest dimension is not larger than 3 mm.

20. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the coding of the surface wave component (2) has no more than 10 bits.

21. A sensor according to claim 1, wherein the surface wave component (2) comprises at least three calibration reflectors (13) for calibrating the coding.