Lab no.

05

BAHRIA UNIVERSITY KARACHI CAMPUS

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS

LAB EXPERIMENT # 05

Pressure Sensor
OBJECTIVE:-

• Study and understand the Pressure Sensor

• To be familiar with the working of Pressure Sensor.

EQUIPMENTS:

• Main Unit KL-62001

• Module KL-64007
• Digital Multimeter

THEORY:-

Pressure sensors can be classified in terms of pressure ranges they measure, temperature
ranges of operation, and most importantly the type of pressure they measure. Pressure sensors
are variously named according to their purpose, but the same technology may be used under
different names.

1) Resistive pressure sensor or transducer

2) Capacitive pressure sensor or transducer
3) Inductive pressure sensor or transducer
4) Self-generating pressure sensor or transducer

The most commonly used device for pressure measurements is the resistive strain sensor. It
consists of a semiconductor or conductor with a small cross-section which is mounted to the
measured surface so that it undergoes small elongations or constrictions due to tension or
compression stresses applied to that surface, respectively. When a mechanical stress is
applied to the silicon crystal, the resistively of this crystal will be changed. As a result, the

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strain sensor undergoes a corresponding change in resistance due to stress. This effect is
called the piezoresistive effect.

The construction of integrated and diffused semiconductor strain gage is shown in figure 5.1
(a & b), respectively.

Figure 5.1 (a): Integrated semiconductor strain gage

Figure 5.1 (b): Diffused semiconductor strain gage

The sensitivities of semiconductor strain gages are between 50 and 200 and are typically
around 125, whereas the sensitivities of metal strain gages are no greater than 5 and are
typically around 2. Because of their feature to provide relatively large output voltages in
response to small strains (see Figure 5.3), however, semiconductor strain gages have found
quite a few applications, especially in force and pressure transducers. In these applications,
they offer the very significant advantage of requiring much lower sensing-element (e.g.,
diaphragm) deflections than metal strain gages. This permits the use of stiffer and more stable
sensing elements, and stiffer sensing elements also provide a far higher frequency response.

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Figure 5.2: Output characteristic of integrated semiconductor

pressure transducer

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF PRESSURE SENSOR MODULE:

Figure 5.3: Circuit Diagram of Pressure Sensor Module

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PROCEDURE:
1) Place the module KL-64007 on the trainer KL-62001.
2) Connect the multimeter Red probe to KL-64007’s Vo30-1 and Black to GND.
3) Record the output voltage for each Pressure on Table 5.1.

Table 5.1: Observation Table

Pressure LOW MED HIGH

Output
voltage(Vo)

Q. Why Wheatstone bridge is used?

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