The VLO-M1 viscosity sensor measures the viscosity of a fluid in a microelectromechanical system (MEMS system). In the sensor, the medium is passed through a pressure gradient to the omega chip, an omega-shaped microchannel. This vibronic measuring system generates the measured values by setting a silicon tube in the chip into resonant oscillation and analyzing it. This is because the vibration quality depends on the viscosity of the liquid in the microchannel. At the same time – and independent of the viscosity – the density of the medium to be measured can be determined via the frequency of the microchannel. Since the temperature influences both viscosity and density, the temperature of the medium is also recorded in the chip in real time. In this way, the temperature effect can be compensated.

The measuring system, which is sub-millimeter in size, enables the sensor to be compactly built. It is only 80 x 30 x 15 mm³ in size and can therefore be accommodated even in tight spaces.  The measured values are transmitted to the higher-level system via an RS232 interface and the ASCII command protocol in the TrueDyne Sensors standard.