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Sensors 2012, 12(11), 14838-14850; doi:10.3390/s121114838
Article
Novel Air Flow Meter for an Automobile Engine Using a Si Sensor with Porous Si Thermal Isolation
Institute of Microelectronics, NCSR Demokritos, Terma Patriarchou Grigoriou, 15310 Aghia Paraskevi, Greece
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 4 September 2012; in revised form: 26 October 2012 / Accepted: 29 October 2012 / Published: 2 November 2012
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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Abstract: An air flow meter for measuring the intake air of an automobile engine is presented. It is based on a miniaturized silicon thermal mass flow sensor using a thick porous Si (Po-Si) layer for local thermal isolation from the Si substrate, on which the sensor active elements are integrated. The sensor is mounted on one side of a printed circuit board (PCB), on the other side of which the readout and control electronics of the meter are mounted. The PCB is fixed on a housing containing a semi-cylindrical flow tube, in the middle of which the sensor is situated. An important advantage of the present air flow meter is that it detects with equal sensitivity both forward and reverse flows. Two prototypes were fabricated, a laboratory prototype for flow calibration using mass flow controllers and a final demonstrator with the housing mounted in an automobile engine inlet tube. The final demonstrator was tested in real life conditions in the engine inlet tube of a truck. It shows an almost linear response in a large flow range between –6,500 kg/h and +6,500 kg/h, which is an order of magnitude larger than the ones usually encountered in an automobile engine.
Keywords: air flow meter; thermal mass flow sensor; porous Si thermal isolation; automobile engine
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hourdakis, E.; Sarafis, P.; Nassiopoulou, A.G. Novel Air Flow Meter for an Automobile Engine Using a Si Sensor with Porous Si Thermal Isolation. Sensors 2012, 12, 14838-14850.
AMA StyleHourdakis E, Sarafis P, Nassiopoulou AG. Novel Air Flow Meter for an Automobile Engine Using a Si Sensor with Porous Si Thermal Isolation. Sensors. 2012; 12(11):14838-14850.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHourdakis, Emmanouel; Sarafis, Panagiotis; Nassiopoulou, Androula G. 2012. "Novel Air Flow Meter for an Automobile Engine Using a Si Sensor with Porous Si Thermal Isolation." Sensors 12, no. 11: 14838-14850.