Reinforced Pressure Sensor for Marine Environment

Pressure measurements in marine environment are of utmost importance to better understand the ocean processes, for maritime security and even for tsunami wave detection. In this work, a MEMS reinforced piezoresistive pressure sensor with packaging and protective coatings was tested to achieve both higher sensitivity and larger full scale span compared to conventional single diaphragm. By eliminating large deflections and non-linearities, the reinforced design showed about 15% higher sensitivity and twice the operating range. Further, reliability of protective coatings was evaluated in real ocean conditions.