ISAE-Supaero, 2. 10.

2015

AM AMS - MEG6

Li Feng, Jan Presinsk

y

Transducer Characteristics
1

Goal of the Exercise

Determination of the metrological characteristics of the low profile microsensor for aerodynamic pressure measurement.

Objectives
1. Briefly describe the piezoresistive pressure transducer ENDEVCO 8518C-15 and introduce his
specifications.
2. Process the given calibration data of the device. Find linear model using Least squares method
and evaluate the static characteristics.
3. Compare the computed characteristics with manufacturers specifications and determine their
convenience.
4. Compute the confidence interval of pressure p which corresponds to the output voltage V = 123 mV.

Analysis of Transducer

During the pressure measurement process the high quality sensor have to deal with a lot of environmental inputs like temperature, shock, vibration, bright sunlight and mounting stress in order to
cause no errors. Moreover, the sensor itself should not disturb the measured air flow. The transducer
ENDEVCO Model 8515C is able to make accurate measurements in these demanding aerodynamic
conditions with minimum distortion of air-flow and minimum changes of test items. We dedicate the
following section to brief description of mounting and construction of the sensor and to introduce his
specifications.
Our device is rugger, miniature, high sensitivity piezoresistive pressure transducer available in 15
and 50 psia full scale ranges. Our given calibration data was measured by the first mentioned model
with 15 psia full scale range. It is surface-mounted via an adhesive and measures 0.76 mm thin by
6.3 mm diameter. The core of the transducer is represented by a micromachined silicon diaphragm
sensor of the piezoresistive type. It is formed by an integral vacuum reference chamber allowing
absolute pressure measurements. The reference chamber is rectangular (1.5 mm x 1.3 mm) and is
filled by vacuum, so there is no need to lead reference tubes through the aircraft or wind tunnel. Its
diaphragm consists of two thick stiffening members sitting at its center, which concentrate much of the
diaphragm deflection in three thin areas with strain gages. Due to this assembling the full scale output
of sensor is 200 mV with perfect high frequency response and very low base strain sensitivity. The
sensor also withstands high overpressures up to five times full scale. The temperature performance is
also excellent. The testing has shown, that the units well behaved over the 54 C to 121 C flight
test range by zero measured output and sensitivity errors remained below 2 %. New features as the
incorporation of on chip zero compensation and a modified more linear doping level contributed in an
important manner to these results. The latter was achieved by Ion implantation, which is a very precise
method of doping the silicon. According to that we obtained much less scatter in characteristics.
Another new feature is a thin reflective coating on its exposed surface, which reduces its sensitivity
to bright lights. The sensor is mounted on a thin kapton circuit board inside a shallow stainless steel
case. Total height of the transducer is only 0.76 mm for minimum intrusion into a flow. Excluding
of debris and reduced light sensitivity is reached by using sensitive diaphragm and a special screen
which lets air in only through a circular pattern of small holes situated just outside the sensor. As the
transducer is with his 0.8 grams very light, it can be without any difficulties mounted on high speed
compressor blades in an engine and can experience over 10000 g of steady acceleration. The number
of components is minimized so the sensor manages even 10000 g shocks or 1000 g sinusoidal vibration

ISAE-Supaero, 2. 10. 2015

AM AMS - MEG6

Li Feng, Jan Presinsk

y

environments. In spite of that the standard version has a moisture proofing thin film coating, the
transducer is not recommended for wet environments. Its use is especially efficient wherever small size
and low profiles are required or where surface mounting is more convenient than intrusive methods.
This flat pack transducer can be mounted on the surface of the plane, which is easily accessible, with
epoxy, silicones, cyanoacrylates or double backed tapes. The flat ribbon cable can be held with duct
tape and routed to a few central locations for connection to instrumentation. After the test the units
can be carefully removed and reused if appropriate adhesives were used. So there are no holes in the
skin of a aircraft, which normally have to be drilled, when using conventional threaded transducers.
Sometimes by small models with high flow rates, even the small transducer may cause significant
disturbance to the flow. In such cases it is common practice to mill recesess for the transducer and
cable so they will be flush with the surface. Another technique used mostly on larger structures is
the application of potting around the transducer. Then a circular ramp from the top surface of the
transducer gradually sloping down to the test surface is created. There is one drawback to this type
of transducer which appears when the curvature of the mounting surface increases. It is a zero shift.
For example maximum shifts on a 3 mm thick beam at 600 E were 0.012 psi. The Model 8515C is
suitable for use on small- scale models in wind tunnel tests, as well ass on aerodynamic surfaces during
flight tests. Other uses are for blast effect studies and helicopter or turbine blade surface pressure
measurements.

Results of Calibration Data Processing

For the calibration process it was supposed to cover the whole pressure range of the sensor (0-15 psi)
and split it into ten equidistant intervals, which generated us eleven pressure values in the range. For
these selected points, voltage output values were measured. The range was described twice, firstly
from lower to upper limit, afterwards from upper to lower limit for the same points. This process was
repeated three times, so in total we got 66 couples consisting of voltage outputs and their corresponding
pressure levels.
Next step was to get a linear model based on these measured 66 points, which have generally
described the relationship between the voltage output and the pressure. For the statistical processing
the so-called Least squares method was used, which minimized the sum of squared deviations from
the linear model. The linear model is characterized by the following equation:
V = a p + b,
where V represents the voltage output, p is the pressure input and a, b have to be determined. Generally a represents the slope of the straight line and b the output value for the zero input. We computed
these quantities by the MS Excel functions called SLOPE (for a) and INTERCEPT (for b). The
results were following:
mV
mV
= 13.4187 1470
Pa
psi
b = 1.2742 4242 mV

a = 0.0019 4615

= 0.0019 4615 p + 1.2742 4242.

Using these results we can directly obtain some static characteristics. For instance the value of a
determines the sensitivity of the sensor. Afterwards, zero offset is given by the value of b. Concerning
the bias, it can be considered as systematic and automatically corrected, when the operating conditions remained close from reference conditions. Precision is characterized by the experimental output
standard deviation s , which indicates the amount of variability of measured data around the model.
This parameter is given by the following equation:
v
u
N
u 1 X
s = t
(ami + b si )2 ,
N 2
i=1

ISAE-Supaero, 2. 10. 2015

AM AMS - MEG6

Li Feng, Jan Presinsk

y

where N is number of points, mi represents the input value of i-th point,si is the output value of ith
point and a, b are parameters determining the linear model. We have computed the experimental
output standard deviation of our given calibration data by using the MS Excel function STE.XY and
we get for the precision:
s = 0.9006 9996 mV.

Comparison of the Results with Manufacturers Specifications

Lets introduce some necessary specifications of the sensor given by the manufacturer in the following
table.
Full Scale Ouput
Range
Sensitivity
Combined: Non-linearity,
Non-repeatability, Pressure Hysteresis
Zero Measurand Output

Units
mV
psia
mV
psia Typ (Min)
% FSO RSS Max

8515C-15
200 mV typical (130 mV min)
0 - 15
13.3 (8.67)
0.50

mV Max

20

Now we would like to compare the found sensitivity, zero offset and the precision of our sensor to the
manufacturers values of these characteristics. We can see that the table contains directly the typical
and minimal value of sensitivity. Furthermore, zero measurand output defined as the transducer output
with 0 psia (pounds per square inch absolute) corresponds directly to the zero offset. When we want
to get the value of precision we have to focus on the combined value of non-linearity, non-repeatability
and pressure hysteresis, which is given in percents from full scale output. The abbreviation RSS means
Residual Sum of Squares and indicate the precision. So, to get the precision value expressed in mV,
we have to compute the half percent of full scale output 200 mV, which is equal to 1 mV. Now we are
able to directly compare all the desired characteristics given in the table bellow.
Sensitivity
Zero Offset
Precision

Specifications of our Sensor

13. 4187 1470 mV
psi
1. 2742 4242 mV
0. 9006 9996 mV

Manufacturers Specifications
mV
13.3 mV
psi (min 8.67 psi )
20 mV
1 mV (max)

From this table is obvious, that the sensitivity of our sensor 13. 4187 1470 mV
psi is much more higher then
mV
the minimal permitted sensitivity 8.67 psi and simultaneously is very close to the typical sensitivity
of the general sensor 13.3 mV
psi . At the same time the zero offset of our sensor 1. 2742 4242 mV lies
almost in the middle of the allowed interval (-20 mV; 20 mV). Also the observed precision of our sensor
0. 9006 9996 mV is lower than the maximum allowed precision for this type of sensor, which equals to
1 mV. Due to these fact the calibration process is over and we can use our transducer during practical
measurements of pressure.

Determination of the Value of Pressure for Specific Output

Consider the output voltage to be V = 123 mV. Our goal is to find out the pressure input p that
produced this V value. We have to take into account that our observed output value V can be
obtained from several input pressure values. It means that the result of our measurement process
wont be a single value, but a whole interval of values which is valid with some probability.
In order to determine this interval we firstly compute the most probable value pea of the input
pressure p using our linear model. It means that the most probable value of p is:
pea =

V b
123 1. 2742 4242
=
= 9. 0713 4255 psi = 62 546. 90686 Pa.
a
13. 4187 1470

ISAE-Supaero, 2. 10. 2015

AM AMS - MEG6

Li Feng, Jan Presinsk

y

Following step is the translation of output standard deviation s into an equivalent input standard
deviation m given by:
m =

0. 9006 9996
s
=
= 0. 0671 2267 psi = 462. 8108 1040 Pa.
a
13. 4187 1470

Now the final result can be expressed as: p = pea km , where the factor k defines the probability
that the true value lies within the so-called confidence interval (pea km ; pea + km ). Choosing k = 2
we finally get for the output voltage V = 123 mV the corresponding confidence interval of the pressure
input p:
p = 9. 0713 4255 0. 1342 4534 psi
= 62 546. 90686 925. 6216 2080 Pa

(k = 2; P = 95 %)
(k = 2; P = 95 %).

Summary

After the brief introduction of the piezoresistive pressure transducer ENDEVCO 8518C-15, we processed the given calibration data and created a linear model which described the relationship between
the input pressure and output voltage. Due to this model we were able to gain the sensitivity, the full
scale output and the precision of our sensor. Consequently we compared these characteristics with
the manufacturers specifications for the typical model. Our computed characteristics were satisfactory and similar to the manufacturers specifications. After successful calibration we determined the
confidence interval for the chosen output voltage V = 123 mV.