A method enabling simultaneous pressure and temperature measurement using a single piezoresistive MEMS pressure sensor

In this paper we present a high-performance, simple and low-cost method for simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature using a single piezoresistive MEMS pressure sensor. The proposed measurement method utilizes the parasitic temperature sensitivity of the sensing element for both pressure measurement correction and temperature measurement. A parametric mathematical model of the sensor was established and its parameters were calculated using the obtained characterization data. Based on the model, a real-time sensor correction for both pressure and temperature measurements was implemented in a target measurement system. The proposed method was verified experimentally on a group of typical industrial-grade piezoresistive sensors. The obtained results indicate that the method enables the pressure measurement performance to exceed that of typical digital industrial pressure transmitters, achieving at the same time the temperature measurement performance comparable to industrial-grade platinum resistance temperature sensors. The presented work is directly applicable in industrial instrumentation, where it can add temperature measurement capability to the existing pressure measurement instruments, requiring little or no additional hardware, and without adverse effects on pressure measurement performance.