TY - JOUR A1 - Eiler, Julian A1 - Weber, Stefan A1 - Gerlesberger, Peter A1 - Plöchinger, Heinz A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Active heat-loss compensated miniaturized pirani sensor chip JF - IEEE Sensors Letters N2 - Due to the limited measuring range of commercial Pirani sensors in lower pressure regimes, attempts are being made to extend the measuring range of the sensors. Our approach to extend the measuring range toward lower pressures is a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) Pirani sensor with active heat compensation on the suspensions. The sensor element has the shape of a microhotplate and consists of a nickel heating meander embedded in two silicon nitride layers. The whole structure is built on a silicon wafer. The sensor element is suspended on all four corners of the substrate. On each of the suspensions, there is an additional heating structure that minimizes the heat flux from the hot sensor element toward the substrate. The sensor is driven at a constant temperature through a self-balancing Wheatstone bridge. A constant voltage is applied to the heating structures on the suspensions. It has been demonstrated that with these additional heaters, the sensitivity of the sensor can be increased in the high-vacuum regime. This enables reliable vacuum measurements down to 10−6 mbar. KW - Temperature measurement KW - Heating systems KW - Temperature sensors KW - Sensitivity KW - Pressure measurement KW - Voltage measurement KW - Heat sinks KW - Semiconductor device measurement KW - Noise measurement KW - Bridge circuits Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/LSENS.2025.3605747 SN - 2475-1472 VL - 9 IS - 10 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - GEN A1 - Eiler, Julian A1 - Weber, Stefan A1 - Gerlesberger, Peter A1 - Plöchinger, Heinz A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Miniaturized Pirani vacuum sensor with active heat-loss compensation T2 - Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft e.V. (DPG), Regensburg, 16. - 21. März 2025 N2 - Pirani sensors measure the thermal conductivity of the residual gas in a vacuum by creating a thermal gradient between a heated sensor element and a heat sink. The heat flux from the sensor element to the heat sink over the residual gas is a measure of the vacuum and can be determined by the electrical power applied. In addition to the heat flux over the gas, there are further energy losses from the heating structure due to radiation and parasitic heat fluxes via the suspensions of the sensor element. These losses reduce the sensitivity of the sensor. For this reason, a Micro-Pirani sensor in the shape of a microhotplate was developed that actively compensates the heat flux via the suspensions. This was achieved by placing additional heating structures on the suspensions, which interrupt the heat flow from the sensor element via the suspensions during operation. This active compensation improves the sensitivity at low pressures, enabling vacuum measurements from atmospheric pressure down to 10e-6 mbar. Y1 - 2025 UR - https://www.dpg-verhandlungen.de/year/2025/conference/regensburg/part/o/session/66/contribution/7 SN - 2751-0522 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e.V. ER -