Characterization of thick-film resistor strain gauges on enamel steel

Recently it has been shown that thick-film resistor starin gauges on ceramic sub strates exhibit noticeable piezoresistive effects, which allow one to develop highly-resistive, low-cost mechanical transducers. In this paper piezoresistive effects in thick-film resistive systems for enameled steel are analyzed and it is shown that they are as interesting for such applications thancks to they high strain sensitivity, low temperature coefficient of resistance and of gauge factors, low excess noise and high stability. Moreover the elastic properties of the substrate enable one to strain the resistors at more than 1000 microstrain with linear and reproducible characteristics.