Properties of and Demands on Sensors
ABSTRACT :
We live in a world of sensors. Bosch company manufactures some 4 million sensors per day. A modern car contains more than a hundred sensors. Sensors are devices that detect and measure some type of input from the physical environment, e.g. pressure, temperature, motion, light, moisture, or concentrations of chemical species. Besides this responsivity to this particular quantity, other properties are at least as important as sensitivity. Sensors should also be selective, i.e. they should be sensitive to just the stimulus (measured). The sensor properties should stay constant to be able to draw conclusions from the measured signal to the stimulus to be measured. Sensitivity, selectivity and (long-term) stability, along with other parameters like sensor response, resolution and measurement uncertainty, form the framework to describe the properties of a sensor.
Usually, sensor will be operated for long periods of time and under challenging environmental conditions. However, there is often the demand on a high level of accuracy in the percent or even the sub-percent range. To fulfil such requirements, it often takes many years of research and development from the very first idea to marketable products. The talk will introduce the general setup of sensors, will explain the properties of sensors, and will show with which measures this low measurement uncertainty can be reached.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Professor Gerlach is the Faculty and the Director of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Technical University, Dresden. He was the Dean of Research from 1994 to 2000. Gerlach is an expert in piezoresistive sensors, received in 1992 the Fritz Winter Prize. He was a visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) during 2001-2002. He was the Vice President of Convention of National Societies of Electrical Engineers of Europe (EUREL) during 2006-2008; President of VDE Verband Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik (200-2009). Professor Gerlach has been a very active Scientist in Sensors; he published several papers in high impact factor Journals and guided a number of Doctoral Theses, executed several Projects funded by BMBF, DFG and Industry. He has also been working in Nano-Bio Systems. Among the several Plenary and key note addresses on sensors, the keynote Speech on "Current Challenges in Engineering Education ", at the Congress "Electricity 2010" has drawn the policy makers for a rethinking on the Engineering Education in Germany (with reference to Bologna Agreement).