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Current Flight Loads Testing technology of a new airplane wing includes a plastic tube system with remotely located pressure sensors, discrete electronics, and pneumatic system control. This approach is cumbersome to install, expensive to operate, and lacks the desired accuracy. This effort developed a MEMS-based, pressure sensor tape, which provides a multitude of 'smart' pressure sensors at the point-of-use, through integration of the sensors and their corresponding electronics on a MCM. To accomplish this goal, research was focused on the development of the following: (a) a standard network interface protocol capable of handling large numbers of sensors, (b) a low-profile, high accuracy MEMS pressure sensor, (c) innovative packaging techniques, including tape design and packaging of the MEMS sensor with its associated electronics on a high density multichip module substrate, and (d) thin protective coatings which will be used to protect the various devices and components from adverse environmental conditions and provide an aerodynamically smooth surface. Validation of these developments and the objective of attaining an accuracy within 0.1 % of the full scale pressure reading (roughly lox better than the state-of-the-art), was realized both in the laboratory and flight tests on both military and commercial airplanes. |
