A structurally multifunctional pressure-temperature sensor

A new multifunctional sensor for simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature is proposed and modeled. The design includes elastic membranes and bi-layer beams as pressure and temperature sensing bodies, respectively, and capacitance readout for transduction. The bi-layer beams are placed such that their out-of-plane displacements due to different coefficients of thermal expansion change the capacitances between two sets of electrodes. Finite element simulations and post-processing results verify the applicability of the proposed design technique in measurement of pressures up to 1 MPa and temperature changes up to 250 °C.