The present invention relates to a sensor element.
A sensor element is discussed for instance in German Published Patent Application No. 199 37 163. The planar sensor element includes three ceramic substrate layers. On one measurement end of the sensor element, electrical elements, such as electrodes and a heating element, may be disposed on and between the ceramic substrate layers. The electrical elements may be electrically connected by conductor tracks to contact faces on an end toward the terminals of the sensor element. The contact faces may be disposed on the outside of the sensor element and may be in electrical contact with contact parts that make an electrical connection with an electrical wiring disposed outside the measuring sensor possible.
Both the electrical elements and the corresponding conductor tracks may be disposed at least partially in a layer plane inside the sensor element. To make the electrical connection between the conductor track and the contact face may require throughplating through a ceramic substrate layer. Such throughplating may be complicated from a production standpoint and may involve a not inconsiderable risk of error.
A sensor element according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide simple contacting of the sensor element in production terms economically and with little risk of error. For that purpose, a contact face may be disposed in a layer plane between a first and second layer of the sensor element, and in the region of the contact face, a recess may be provided in the first ceramic layer.
An electrical element, such as an electrode or a heater, disposed inside the sensor element may be connected electrically to the contact face via a conductor track. For contacting the sensor element, a contact part may be disposed inside the recess in the first layer of the sensor element and may in turn be electrically connected to an electrical wiring disposed outside the sensor element. The contact face and the conductor track may be disposed in a layer plane of the sensor element, so that throughplating through a layer of the sensor element may not be required.
The first and second layers may be provided as a ceramic substrate layer whose thickness is in the range from 0.05 mm to 1 mm. A substrate layer is understood hereinafter to be a layer that is suitable as a substrate for printed functional layers (such as an electrode, conductor track, heating element, or ceramic functional layers such as diffusion barriers, or porously filled gas chambers or insulation layers). Producing a sensor element containing such substrate layers should be known to one skilled in the art and therefore sketched only briefly here. The functional layers may be printed by screen printing on a so-called green sheet (a substrate layer in the unsintered state). The printed green sheets may be laminated and then sintered. A substrate layer may also be an unprinted ceramic layer having the above-described properties.
If the recess is shaped in slotlike form, then the contact part may be securely connected electrically to the contact face, since the lateral walls of the slotlike recess may prevent lateral slippage of the contact part. If the slotlike recess is widened toward an outer face of the sensor element, it may become simpler to slip the contact part onto the contact faces of the sensor element (self-centering).
In a sensor element which includes not only the first and second layers but also a further layer, which adjoins the first layer on the side of the first layer remote from the contact face, then the recess may also be provided in the further layer, so that the contact part is also applied to the contact face laterally, that is, in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the contact face.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the sensor element includes both the first and second layers and a third layer, the layer sequence being in the order given. Both in the layer plane between the first and second layers and in the layer plane between the second and third layers, the sensor element includes contact faces. Recesses may be provided in the region of the contact faces in the first and third layers.
The electrical contact between the contact face and the contact part may be made by a nonpositive and/or positive connection (for instance by soldering or welding, in particular by laser welding). The recess may be made in the green sheet by of the first layer being stamped out, milled or drilled.
First layer 21, in the region of contact faces 30, includes a recess 40 which extends over the entire width of sensor element 10. The first layer thus extends in the direction of the measurement end of sensor element 10, beginning at the transition from contact face 30 to conductor track 31.
For electrical insulation, a first and second insulation layer 35, 36 are disposed between the conductor track and the respective first and second layers 21, 22. Second insulation layer 36 also extends into the region of contact faces 30, so that contact faces 30 are insulated from second layer 22 by second insulation layer 36. Conversely, first insulation layer 36 is recessed in the region of contact faces 30.
In the other drawing figures the same reference numerals as in sensor element 10 shown in
As a second version of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention,
As a third version of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention,
As a first version of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention,
First, second and third ceramic layers 21, 22, 23 are substantially of zirconium oxide stabilized with yttrium. Both contact face 30 and conductor track 31 are substantially of platinum with a ceramic supporting framework. The first and second insulation layers contain aluminum oxide as their primary ingredient.
The present invention may also be adopted for other sensor elements, for instance with more than three substrate layers. The recesses may also be made laterally on the sensor element into one or more substrate layers. Moreover, it is possible to provide only one contact face, or more than two contact faces, with the corresponding recesses.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10210974.5 | Mar 2002 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/DE03/00464 | 2/17/2003 | WO |