Piezo thin film sensors

Paul Boughton

Piezo films offer unique transducer capabilities, producing voltage in proportion to compressive or tensile mechanical stress and strain. They provide a compact and reliable solution as low-cost dynamic strain gauges, vibration sensors, accelerometers or dynamic switch elements. Piezo film is also suited for high fidelity transducers operating throughout the high audio (>1kHz) and ultrasonic (up to 100MHz) ranges.

Now Variohm EuroSensor is now stocking a selection of piezo thin film sensor products from Measurement Specialties Inc, the designer and manufacturer of sensor based components and systems.

The range includes piezo cable, piezo film sheets and piezo film elements in addition to components such as piezo switches and ultrasonic sensors.

Application areas for these materials and components are as diverse as the products. Piezo cable for instance can be a very effective medium for cost effective road vehicle axle counting systems where its compressive qualities – where voltage is generated proportional to the stress – can help determine both the number and load size of vehicles sampled.

Piezo film finds uses in simple loudspeakers for instruments or as anti-tamper film for packaging. Piezo film elements are sub-components that can be used in dynamic strain gauges or as vibration sensors for alarms whilst piezoelectric ultrasound transmitters and receivers offer unique advantages for two-dimensional positioning applications such as digitising pens, object detectors or distance measurement devices.

The Measurement Specialties piezo film sensor range is also supported with a range of piezoelectric laboratory amplifiers to aid development.