Articles
SENSORS GALORE
At present it is a highly respected discipline with its share in professors, staff, laboratories, students and funding.
Such a rapid change souns like a revolution, and in a way it is.
It is useful to dwell upon the why and why now for a moment.
First of all, there has been a fast and continuous progress in the fields of miniaturisation and semiconductor technology.
Thus, new technical means for prototyping and production have become available.
Second, the rapidly increased use of computer control for professional and private use has created a huge demand for sensors for almost every measurable quantity in household (machines), traffic (vehicles), research, industry and agriculture.
Third, a great many of the existing sensors were found to be incompatible with the new requirements.
They were not suited for mass-production, or too large, far too expensive, lacking in reliability or accuracy.
Sometimes no sensors were available at all.
So, it was inevitable to go back to first principles, to think of new approaches to the measurement of numerous quantities and to show that with the aid of the new technologies these ideas could be made to work.
This process is in full swing.
Several examples of what has been achieved are being demonstrated in this workshop.
The next few years will see a great deal more.
Among the topics that have received special attention in North-Western Europe are mechanical sensors (force and pressure), chemical sensors based on field effect transitors (ISFET’s), humidity sensors, solid state gas sensors and more recently optical sensors.
The feasibility of an abundance of ideas has been demonstrated.
Several ideas have been carried on to a small-scale production.
Some are in regular production as part of the program of industrial companies.