A completely wireless and passive low-pressure sensor

In this paper we present a low pressure sensor based on the Pirani principle. Conversely to conventional implementations, this novel concept employs a fully wireless approach for energy supply and readout of the sensor. The energy for the used heating element is harvested from conventional power supply lines. Furthermore, we used a fully passive sensor to measure the pressure value. Both parts together offer a flexible sensor concept which can solve current implementation drawbacks of size and wired connection to this kind of sensors. The presented sensor concept is completely autonomous and offers a cheap and flexible alternative to conventional sensors even on places not easy to access and without the need for maintenance. For the whole sensor system a simulation model is derived and the model is compared to measurements. The accuracy of the model for the autonomous sensor is shown over a large area of pressure.