Lattice-structured pressure sensor and a system and method for use and calibration thereof
AssigneeThe Governing Council of the University of Toronto
InventorsMohammadamin JAMSHIDI, Faezeh AZHARI
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Abstract
There is provided a pressure sensor for converting applied pressure to electrical signals, a method for using the pressure sensor, and a method for calibrating the pressure sensor. The pressure sensor including: a non-conductive substrate; conductive material in the non-conductive substrate, the conductive material forming a lattice structure; and a plurality of electrodes connected to the conductive material at respective locations of a boundary of the lattice structure.
Claims20
A pressure sensor for converting applied pressure to electrical signals, the pressure sensor comprising:
- a non-conductive substrate;
- conductive material in the non-conductive substrate, the conductive material forming a lattice structure;
- and
- a plurality of electrodes connected to the conductive material at respective locations of a boundary of the lattice structure.
A method of using a pressure sensor, the pressure sensor comprising a non-conductive substrate, a conductive material in the non-conductive substrate that forms a lattice structure, and a plurality of electrodes connected to the conductive material, the method comprising:
- selecting a pair of electrodes;
- iteratively performing:
- directing current to the selected pair of electrodes;
- receiving voltage measurements across non-selected electrodes;
- determining whether each pair of electrodes has been selected, and where each pair of electrodes has not been selected, selecting a previously not selected pair of electrodes and performing a further iteration, otherwise performing no further iterations;
- determining resistivity and/or conductivity at each node in the lattice structure using the voltage measurements;
- correlating the resistivity and/or conductivity value at each node to a pressure value using a calibrated transfer function;
- and
- outputting the pressure values.
A method of calibrating a pressure sensor, the pressure sensor comprising a non-conductive substrate, a conductive material in the non-conductive substrate that forms a lattice structure, and a plurality of electrodes connected to the conductive material, the method comprising:
- iteratively performing for a predetermined number of iterations:
- applying a selected pressure to the sensor, the selected pressure having not previously been selected;
- selecting a pair of electrodes;
- iteratively performing while the selected pressure is applied to the pressure sensor:
- directing current to the selected pair of electrodes;
- receiving voltage measurements across non-selected electrodes;
- determining whether each pair of electrodes has been selected, and where each pair of electrodes has not been selected, selecting a previously not selected pair of electrodes and performing a further iteration, otherwise performing no further iterations;
- determining resistivity and/or conductivity at each node in the lattice structure using the voltage measurements;
- correlating the resistivity and/or conductivity value at each node to the known pressure value;
- determining a transfer function correlating change in resistivity and/or conductivity to pressure based on the relationship between the change in resistivity and/or conductivity and the applied pressure;
- and
- outputting the transfer function.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.