Highly Sensitive Cr-N Thin Film Pressure Sensor using Ceramic Structure Body

Abstract

The authors have investigated a high-sensitive hydrogen pressure sensor at low pressure range. In this paper, a new pressure sensor element composed of a zirconia base and a Cr-N thin film, which are not affected by hydrogen, was proposed. It was considered that such a sensor element could be placed into hydrogen gas and then detect directly the pressure variation in the pressure vessel. Also, the sensor element has a diaphragm structure with a reference pressure chamber in the base. Therefore, it was thought that the element could do the sensitive pressure sensing due to the Cr-N thin films which can detect a strain sensitively. The sensor elements mentioned above were fabricated and the experiments applying pressure to them were carried out. As a result, it was revealed that the sensor enabled stable and high-sensitive pressure detection in the low-pressure range less than 1MPa. The pressure sensor of this study can be expected as a new type of pressure sensor for hydrogen.