Measuring and testing – Specimen stress or strain – or testing by stress or strain... – Specified electrical sensor or system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-14
2003-05-13
Noori, Max (Department: 2855)
Measuring and testing
Specimen stress or strain, or testing by stress or strain...
Specified electrical sensor or system
C073S777000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06561040
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a system and method of sensing environmental conditions, and more particularly, to a system and method of detecting environmental conditions through the use of micro electrical mechanical devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In building complex structures such as aircraft, buildings or ships a need arises to model physical conditions on the structure. Often this is accomplished using scale models of the structure in environmental chambers such as wind tunnels or wave tanks. This enables an understanding of the expected performance or design flaws of the structure prior to actually building the structure itself. For example, physical conditions such as pressure can be measured with transducers placed on the various surfaces (wings, tail, nose etc.) of a wind tunnel model. The data measured by the transducers can then be recorded and analyzed.
Transducers are typically installed by drilling holes and passages in the model for wires that run to the transducers located in or on the model, or air tubes that run to remotely located transducers. The problem arises in that placing transducers on the model in this manner makes the model very expensive to build and the number, location and position of the transducers limited. Therefore the amount of data available becomes limited.
An additional problem arises when testing actual conditions on the full scale structures. In flight testing of an airplane, one may want to install sensors on the aircraft in order to measure pressure on the leading edges, the wing and other various aerodynamic surfaces. This involves a great expense in placing the sensors inside the aircraft with a plethora of wires or air tubes running throughout the aircraft.
One solution that has attempted to increase the number of sensors point available on the structure has been to utilize Micro Electrical Mechanical Devices (MEMS). MEMS offer the integration of micro-machined mechanical devices and microelectronics on a single chip. These electromechanical devices may include discrete sensors to measure conditions such as pressure, vibration, temperature and the like. To put these devices on or in a structural model inside an environmental chamber such as a wind tunnel model could be an advantage. However, the plethora of wiring is still required to both power the MEMS and transfer the data gathered by the MEMS; therefore no significant practical or cost savings can be achieved by the use of these devices.
Thus, there is a need for an improved MEMS module which requires no external electrical connections.
There is a need for an improved system of gathering physical environmental data from a structure to be tested with remote sensors requiring no electrical connections.
Moreover, there is a need for an improved system of gathering physical environmental data from a structure to be tested with MEMS sensor modules which require no external electrical connections.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a system and method for detecting physical conditions at a structure that substantially eliminates or reduces disadvantages and problems associated with previously developed systems and methods for monitoring physical conditions at a structure.
More specifically, the present invention provides a micro-electro mechanical die module for monitoring physical environmental conditions at a structure. The micro-electro mechanical die module includes a substrate. At least one micro-mechanical transducer on the substrate is electrically connected to a plurality of integrated circuits on the substrate which read an output signal of the micro-mechanical transducer. A power supply is located on the substrate and electrically connected to the integrated circuits on the substrate. A transmitter on the substrate is electrically connected to the integrated circuits and an antenna on the substrate.
A second embodiment of the present invention provides a micro-electro mechanical die module for detecting physical environmental conditions at a structure, wherein the power supply is a photo-voltaic device excited by a coherent light source external to the micro-electro mechanical die module. This photo-voltaic device generates an electric potential when illuminated by a coherent light source. Furthermore, the integrated circuits on the substrate contain a read only memory in which has been encoded an identification code unique to the individual micro-electro mechanical die module. This unique identification code is included in an electromagnetic signal representing the output signal of the micro-mechanical transducer.
The present invention also provides a method of gathering physical data from a structure. The method includes the steps of placing a micro-electro mechanical die module proximate to the structure. The micro-electro mechanical die module is powered by an internal power supply. Physical conditions at the structure are converted to an output signal with a micro-mechanical transducer in the micro-electro mechanical die module. The output signal is amplified with integrated circuits electrically connected to the micro-mechanical transducer in the micro-electro mechanical die module and encoded with an identification code unique to the individual micro-electro mechanical die modules. This amplified signal is converted to and transmitted to the electromagnetic signal and transmitted to an external receiver. The received electromagnetic signal can then be processed to obtain data representative of the physical conditions at the location of the micro-electro mechanical die module.
The present invention provides an important technical advantage in that no external electrical connections to the MEMS module are required because the gathered data is transmitted and the device may be powered passively by a photo-voltaic device.
The present invention provides another technical advantage by gathering physical environmental data from a structure to be tested with remote sensors or transducer which do not require electrical connections eliminating often the costly installation of such connections.
The present invention provides another technical advantage by uniquely identifying an individual MEMS, module with a unique identification design of experiments (DOE) thus enabling the data gathered from a MEMS module to be uniquely associated with that particular MEMS module.
The present invention provides yet another technical advantage by activating the MEMS module with a coherent light source scanned onto the photo-voltaic device across an array of MEMS modules to ensure that only one MEMS module in the array is active and transmitting a signal at any point in time.
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Henderson J. Kirston
Kellogg David L.
Hughes & Luce LLP
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Noori Max
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