High bandwidth CMOS based flow sensors. Engineering: Sensors and Instrumentation.

Research Areas: Engineering: Sensors and Instrumentation.
Conventional flow sensors are based on either thermal or mechanical MEMS devices and suffer from low response times (few Hz). This makes them unable to respond to rapid changes in fluid flow such as caused by the onset of laminar to turbulent transition or local vortexes. The research project is based around using ultra-thin film SOI CMOS technology to develop a new generation of flow sensors with much higher bandwidths (> 10kHz). The concept has been patented and further patents are being sought with researchers at Cambridge University. A new generation of flow sensors will be developed with integrated drive and transduction electronics on a single ASIC chip. New signal processing algorithms will be needed and embedded for fast, local processing. The silicon chips will be fabricated on an SOI CMOS platform and tested using wind tunnels here or at Cambridge Whittle Laboratory.