The design of a monolithic, signal conditioned pressure sensor

A bipolar IC process has been used to design and manufacture a pressure sensor that includes temperature compensation and amplification in a monolithic silicon structure. Specifically, a bipolar IC process has been combined with a micromachined silicon diaphragm and piezoresistive sensing element to produce a fully integrated pressure sensor. The result of this effort is a sensor that is easy to manufacture and can be directly interfaced to a microprocessor with an integral analog-to-digital converter. This allows a considerable reduction in space and the simplification of external circuitry for systems that require a pressure input. The design of the single element sensor, circuitry, and key processing aspects are discussed