윤활유 물성 측정을 위한 유전상수 센서 개발

Abstract

This study presents the development of dielectric constant sensors to measure lubricant properties. The lubricant oil sensor is used to measure oil properties and machine conditions. Various condition monitoring methods are applied to diagnose machine conditions. Machine condition monitoring using oil sensors has advantage over other machine condition monitoring methods. The fault conditions can be noticed at the early stages by the detection of wear particles using oil sensors. Therefore, it provides an early warning in the failure procedure. A variety of oil sensors are applied to check the machine condition. Among all oil sensors, only one sensor can measure the tendency of several properties such as acidity and water content. A dielectric constant sensor is also used to measure various oil properties; therefore, it is very useful. The dielectric constant is the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor using that material as a dielectric to that of a similar capacitor using vacuum as its dielectric. The dielectric constant has an effect on water content, contaminants, base oil, additive, and so forth. In this study, the dielectric constant sensor is fabricated using MEMS process. In the fabrication process, the shape, gap of the electrode array, and thickness of the insulation material are considered to improve the sensitivity of the sensor.