A dual-mode thickness-shear quartz pressure sensor

Performance requirements from pressure and temperature sensors especially for use in oil fields are very demanding. Several years of effort have been devoted to the development of a dual-mode thickness-shear quartz pressure sensor to meet such requirements. The objective of this effort was to develop a sensor with a pressure range of up to 15000 psi, a temperature range of up to 175 degrees C, a pressure calibration accuracy of 1 psi, and a resolution of 0.01 psi with 1-s counter gate time. It is demonstrated that the dual-mode thickness-shear quartz pressure sensor presented meets or exceeds these requirements. The pressure resolution is better than 0.01 psi at 1-s counter gate time. A significant advantage of the dual-mode design is its dynamic performance. An in situ measurement of the resonator temperature allows an implementation of an extremely effective dynamic compensation algorithm which yields corrected pressure readings with a response time as short as a strain-gauge-based pressure transducer while retaining the high performance of a quartz gauge under static conditions.<
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