High accuracy force transducers

Thames Side Sensors worked closely with Dage, both to develop existing technology, and also to engineer specific solutions.   The company is the British market leader in transducer design and manufacture and provides engineered solutions for force measurement, weighing and specialist applications.   It has vast experience with foil strain gauges and is also one of the few companies worldwide with substantial experience in the design and manufacture of transducers using semiconductor strain gauges.

Dage's machines are used to test the bonds holding the gold leads to the silicon wafers inside microchips.   They are used daily within the semiconductor industry for quality control.   The machines enable pull tests to be carried out on the leads, and shear tests to test the bond to the silicon.   Thames Side Sensors developed transducers for Dage using semiconductor strain gauges, which can accommodate the very low deflections involved while providing a high output.   The uncertainty of measurement is far less than with foil gauges, making the result more accurate and more useful.

As integrated circuits have become more complex, Thames Side Sensors has continued to develop the range of transducers, introducing units with a maximum capacity of only a few grams, to help keep Dage at the forefront of its field.