Monitoring the Tire Pressureat Cars Using Passive SAW Sensors
Alfred Pohl ',G. Ostermayer ', L. Reindl ', F. Seifert '
1) Applied Electronics Laboratory, University ofTechnology, Gusshausstrasse 27, A-1040
2) Siemens Central Research Lab., Otto Hahn Ring 6, D-81739 Munich, Germany
-
Abstract In our paper we present the application of
surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors the
to
continuous monitoring of the tire pressure in road
vehicles. With these, the tire pressure can be read out
in every phase of driving. We show the implemented
prototype setup for measurement of the tire pressure,
the applied SAW sensors, improved versions and the
interrogation setup. The problems in practical
application are discussed. Experimental results
measuring the tire pressure during test rides are
presented.
INTRODUCTION
Operating a mad vehicle, a malfunction of the tires
in motion due to a tire puncture can cause serious
accidents and endanger human life. Furthermore,
nowadays manufacturers of cars try to save the spare
wheel in vehicles. Usually it only costs weight and
space, therefore it yields a higher fuel consumption,
although it will be required less than one time in
more than ten years of a car's life. This only can be
done, if the air pressure in the tires can be measured
even during driving. Currently used sensors contain
active components, powered by a Lithium battery.
The mass of these sensor assemblies is about 20
grams causing high dynamic load. A few years ago,
wirelessly interrogable SAW devices for sensor
applications were invented. [l, 2, 31. Using an one
port SAW delay line connected to an antenna only,
an RF interrogation signal is fed into and the sensor
response, carrying the sensor's information is
retransmitted wirelessly to the interrogator. These
sensors are capable for measurement of temperature,
mechanical load, force and displacement, etc. The
advantage is, that SAW sensors are totally passive
devices and contain neither power supply nor
semiconductors. They withstand temperatures up to
several hundreds of degree centigrades, their lifetime
0-7803-4153-8/97/$10.00 0 1997 IEEE
Vienna, Austria
is much longer than that of battery powered systems.
Further, in vehicles strong electromagnetic pollution
is generated by ignition systems etc. SAW sensors
operate without risk of damage even in rough
environments.
First we discuss pressure measurement employing
SAW sensors with wireless interrogation. We present
some types of sensor assemblies and the
interrogation system. Next we discuss the
implementation into thecar and thenwe present
experimentally results. Finally a brief summary
concludes the content of the paper.
SAW PRESSURE SENSORS
The electrical behaviour of a passive SAW pressure
sensor always is that of a one port delay line with
multiple reflectors or a resonator, respectively.
In the delay line case, the interrogator transmits a
burst signal, the sensor responds with a chain of
bursts, one for every reflector arranged at the
substrate's surface. The differential delay between
two or more response signals is evaluated.
To measure some physical value, the parameter has
to be converted into a change of sensor's surface
length or surface acoustic wave's velocity,
respectively. The delay ri of the response of a
reflector i is the ratio of SAW propagation length Li
on the substrate's surface and propagation velocity
v,. Affecting the sensor with a measurand causes a
scaling of the sensor's response to be observed as
individual delay shifts Ari of the response signals si
originating from the reflectors i. Mechanical
measurands can be collected by loading the sensor
mechanically. Apart from stretching and
compressing, utilized for wireless measurement of
torque, etc. the SAW sensor's substrate can be bent.
Pressure can affect the sensor by bending a
membrane, shifting the edge of a sensor fixed on the
1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 471
other side. Here the sensor is loaded to be bent due to IMPLEMENTATION
a shift of the center of a membrane loaded by the
pressure. On the other hand the sensor can directly The first prototype used for the experimental
be fitted to the membrane or a piezoelectric measurementswas a pressure chamber with a
membrane representing the SAW substrate can be membrane made of brass. The sensor unit was fitted
used. Figure 1 shows these methods. to a hub cap andwas connected to the valve by a
pressure assembly (fig. 3).

Fig. 1:
a) Membrane converting pressureto shift bending
the SAW sensor (SAWS)
b) SAW sensor fitted to the membrane

The next step is to cover the sensor membrane by a

cap consisting of a spacer frame and a quartz cover
plate. This yieldsanintegratedpressure chamber
SAW sensor [4](fig. 2). Fig. 3: First prototype of pressure chamber for
measurement of tire pressure

For serial manufacture the sensor system~have tobe

much smaller and able to be integrated in the tire.
Therefore we implemented the integrated pressure
chamber (fig. 2) into the tire. The sensor was fixed to
the rim, the metallic valve shaft was used as the
sensor's antenna (fig. 4).
spacer frame
Fig. 2: Integrated pressure chamber SAW sensor

Thecover protects theSAW generating metallic

structure from oxidation and the surface from dust.
The cavity can befiIledwith a gas at reference
pressure. If the cavity is evacuated, absolute pressure
values can bemeasured.
Measurement is made by interrogation using simple
RF burst signals. The response impulses are
evaluated in magnitude and phase. Bending the
membrane due to pressure load yields a phase shift
of for instance 100 degree for lo4 Pascal. With this
Fig. 4: Integrated pressure chamber fixed to the rim,
the air pressure in car tires can be measured with a
valve used as antenna
resolutionof approx. IO' Pascal (0.01 Bar). To
reduce the amount of data to process, for the
Forimproved implementation a sensor assembly
implementation in cars the resolution was reduced to
only fitted to the valve was developed (fig. 5).
50 mBar.

472 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM

The total mass of the unit is only a few grams, the
dynamic load is small even driving at high speed.

Fig. 7: System for wireless interrogation of passive

SAW sensors (50 x 100 x 160 mm)
Fig. 5: Pressure sensor forfitting into the valve shaft
MEASUREMENTRESULTS
The
car based interrogation system uses space
To test our sensors and our system we made a lot of
diversity to distinguish the sensors in the tires.
test rides within the area and around the city of
Therefore below every car wing an antenna has to be
Vienna. The interrogation system was coupled to a
employed. We used coaxial cables, hut it is difficult
laptop computer. The pressure values were measured
and expensive to use them in cars. Our investigations
and recorded to a file.
show the applicability of twisted pair wires too.
The figures 8 and 9 show characteristic behaviour of
tire pressure for different driving conditions.
Due to the shocks from a rugged lane, in the left part
of fig. 8 the absolute pressure value swings around
the mean value by the least significant bit, 0.05 Bar.
The narrow higher peaks of tire pressure belong to
braking maneuvers (the sensor was mounted toa
front wheel). The longer increase of tire pressure and
the following period of decay is due to riding over a
curbstone. The system showed high reliability even
when driving in a heavy snow storm.
tire pressure [Bar]

Fig. 6: Interrogation antenna on car

For measurement we developed a small sized

:::L
interrogation system transmitting bursts and looking
for the phase shift between the response signal
bursts. The system was controlled by a one chip
microcontroller and ableis to display the 1
12
14W 145721 1501:12 time 15Mo1
measurement result on aLCD display. In fig. 7 a
photograph of the system is shown.
Fig. 8: Tire pressure for different driving conditions

1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM - 473

In figure 9 the pressure in the right front wheel can
be observed zoomed in time while passing a two
track grade crossing with an adjacent water channel
across the lane. Due to the dilapidated arrangement
of the grade crossing, hard shocks are transmitted to
thecar body causing hard pressure shocks in the
tires.
tire pressure [Bar]
3,w -
2,60--
2.60 --
2.40 ~-
2,20--
2,w -/vL
1.80 --
Fig. 9: Tire pressure crossing a grade crossing with
two tracks and a water channel across the lane
DISCUSSION
SAW sensors with wirelessly interrogation are free
of maintenance and withstand high thermal and
mechanical load. The measurement performance is
comparable to that of competitors. The effort in car
based system is higher for SAW sensors, since the
active sensor units transmit preconditioned digital
information containing pressure valueand sensor
identification.
The major advantage of SAW devices in
applications, where high revolutions per time occur,
is their low mass. The centrifugal force is m.v*/r,
with the mass m, the velocity v and the radius r. To
minimize dynamic mechanical load, the mass of a
system applied to rotating parts should be as low as
possible. Whereas conventional sensor units for tire
pressure measurements have a mass of approx. 20
grams, the integrated pressure sensor itself(fig. 5 )
has a mass of less than one gram. The complete
SAW sensor unit's mass in worst case is only a few
grams.
Conventional systems are powered by a Lithium
battery. In case of a worn tire, since the battery
474 - 1997 IEEE ULTRASONICS SYMPOSIUM
cannot be checked, the sensor should be replaced
too, yielding problems of waste disposal.
For a system integrated in the car electronic, it is
needless to display the pressure of each tire
continuously. Here, only a malfunction should
trigger an alert. The system's display can be
canceled, reducing system's cost.
CONCLUSION
Theadvantagews of passive SAW sensors make
them
well suited for vehicular applications.
Especially for measurement of tire pressure low mass
and the fact that they are free of maintenance make
them to be superior over the competitors.
The SAW sensors for pressure measurement, the
implementation in tires and the system for
interrogation were discussed. Experimental results
out of a lot of measurement rides were presented.
REFERENCES
[l] Reindl, F. Muller, C. Ruppel, WE. Bulst and
F. Seifert, Passive surface wave sensors which
can be. wirelessly interrogated, International
Patent Appl WO 93/13495 (1992).
[2] Seifert F., Bulst W.E., Ruppel C., Mechanical
sensors based on surface acoustic waves,
Sensors andActuators, A44(1994) 231-239
[3] G. Scholl, T. Ostertag, L. Reindl, H. Scherr, 0.
Sczesny, U. Wolff, Wireless SAW Sensors for
Remote Measurement of Physical Parameters,
Proc. IEEE Intern. Workshopon Commercial
Radio Sensors and Communication
Techniques,1997, pp. 51-58.
[4] H. Scherr, G. Scholl, F. Seifert, R. Weigel,
Quartz Pressure Sensor Based on SAW
Reflective Delay Line, Proc. IEEE Ultrasonics
Symposium 1996, pp.347-350.