Zeroing Absolute Sensors?

Discover proven techniques and take note of common pitfalls for zeroing absolute pressure transducers and sensors.

Zeroing a pressure transducer is a fairly straight-forward process, unless it is an absolute transducer. The purpose of this paper is to describe techniques that can be used depending on the available reference standards and the range of the zero-based absolute device under test. Each technique has either some physical limitations or accuracy compromises that will be discussed and examples quantified. This paper will also discuss some of the other, more generic problems in generating stable and consistent pressures in the physical calibration setup using a pneumatic medium. 

Three separate techniques will be discussed:

• Zeroing a transducer near zero absolute pressure using a vacuum standard.
• Zeroing a transducer using the minimum pressure of a deadweight piston gauge.
• Zeroing a transducer with a precision barometer.