Sullivan, Pierre (University of Toronto)

Purpose

Accurate pressure control is necessary for the automotive, aerospace and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to operating at high pressures, it is often necessary to deal with high temperatures. While there are some patents in this area, the costs are high and the systems often require mercury or oil (not allowed in the EU or Food Industry) that make them unsuitable for widespread market penetration. The challenge is that traditional pressure sensors cannot operate at high temperatures (~400 C). This requires interpolation based on measurements from other sources and introduces variability in the process to be controlled. As well, designs capable of operation at high temperature currently use mercury or oil and these are not usable within the food-processing industry. The company specific problem is to develop a high accuracy pressure sensor that is able to operate at high-temperature that is targeted initially at the automotive industry.