CD Laboratory for Measurement Systems for Harsh Operating Conditions

Since the second half of the last century, electrical measurement technology has played a key role in making industrial processes efficient and environmentally friendly.

Despite the continuous technical progress in the field of sensor technology, circuit technology and signal processing, there are still measurement tasks that can only be solved with insufficient accuracy and therefore far-reaching limitations, or not at all. The aim of this CD Laboratory is to develop pioneering measurement technologies specifically for measurement tasks in harsh operating and environmental conditions. The metrological tasks and questions of the CD Laboratory are diverse and cover application areas from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental technology, chemistry and many more. The main reasons for unsatisfactory measurement tasks are often the lack of a suitable sensor or the dominant presence of interfering influences. This can be particularly the case in situations with harsh operating conditions, which, for example, cause pronounced cross-sensitivities and ageing effects, or significant electromagnetic interference and strong noise superposition. In these application conditions, the information-bearing measurement signal is drowned out by the noise and interference, which is referred to as a "weak signal measurement problem". Established measurement technology methods are inadequate for this class of measurement problems, which leads to poor results.

The vision of the CD Laboratory is to develop a profound understanding of the causes, interactions and effects of weak signal measurement problems in order to derive reliable metrological solutions. To this end, pioneering measurement technology for measuring weak signals is being developed in order to solve application-specific challenges, e.g. in heavy industry or in test bench technology. The research activities include the investigation of sensor effects, the reliable design of measurement circuits, digital signal and information processing and holistic metrological analyses in order to take into account the entirety of the measurement application and the measurement system.