A MEMS Based Measurement System for Structure Health Monitoring Applications

The structure health monitoring becomes more and more important to increase the reliability of important assemblies and structures. Therefore, a silicon test chip was developed to analyse acting mechanical loads at critical structure locations. Standard MEMS technologies are used for manufacturing an array structure of stress sensitive elements. Up to 16 sections with each 6 stress sensitive resistors can be measured continuously by one measurement hardware unit. Interpretation and correction of the measured raw data is performed in proper computer software. The whole system can be utilized as a self-sufficient measurement chain for structure health monitoring.