Rocket Science?

Well, that’s only partially true, because we never left the Earth…

But let’s start from the beginning:

The history of MicroResonant begins in 2008 with an international project lead by the European Space Agency ESA to investigate crystal growth in zero gravity. The project (Z-SCDF: Zeolite Solution Crystallization Diagnosis Facility) was planned as a follow-up experiment to other (P / S) CDF experiments and was to be carried out in the European Drawer Rack in the Columbus module of the International Space Station ISS.

The monitoring of crystal growth should be performed using dynamic light scattering and by measuring the viscosity of the solution. The development of the viscosity measurement was carried out at the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsensors at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.

The demand for a compact and precise viscosity measurement with a relatively large measuring range was the trigger for intensive research on resonant fluid sensors as well as suitable evaluation methods for these sensors.

Unfortunately, the financial crisis had an fatal impact on the program and when the project was discontinued as part of budget cuts at ESA 2012, participating researchers decided to continue the development of resonant sensor systems. Bringing the systems, already advanced and promising, to the market seemed an easy task.

The foundation of MicroResonant in 2015 was a special milestone in the evolution of resonant sensors. With MicroResonant’s novel sensor operating mode, measurement accuracy and measurement speed were increased significantly at the same time. The combination with optimized signal processing methods for various applications therefore allows us to design sensor systems with outstanding properties up to the physical limit.

A special concern of the MicroResonant team is to contribute to the more economical use of resources with our technology.

The enormous potential of resonant sensors in the monitoring of liquids in machines and plants is our greatest motivation.