Thick Film Technology

Thick-film sensors use four resistors grouped to form a Wheatstone bridge. The resistance structures are “printed” onto a base element (e.g. ceramic or metallic membranes) using thick-film technology, and afterwards they are burnt-in at high temperature. The resistance change here is due to the deformation of the diaphragm, resulting from the geometrical change caused by the stretching and compression of the material.

With a thickness of 20 microns, they are up to 1,000 times thicker than thin-film strain gauges. Because of their low production requirements, these are cheaper in price, but not very stable longer term due to the aging of their thick film.