Research and Application of a Novel Sensitivity Measurement Method for Particle Impact Noise Detection Sensors

Accidents of launch vehicles, satellites, and missiles originating from remainder particles account for 6% of the causes in accident investigations. The problem of remainder particles seriously reduces the reliability of sealed electronic components in aerospace. Numerous cases have shown that remainder particles cannot be completely avoided due to process, environment, and other factors. As an important method for detecting remainder particles, the particle impact noise detection (PIND) method has become a standard testing tool in the aerospace field in China. However, there is still a lack of effective and feasible solutions to the problems of sensor sensitivity measurement and consistency evaluation, which are key and indispensable components of the closed-loop process of the PIND method. Through numerous experiments, this article proposed a complete set of new methods and systems for the sensitivity measurement of PIND sensors, allowing real-time measurement of PIND sensor sensitivity at the production site without moving or disassembling the sensor. This article systematically illustrated the feasibility of this new method and system from the perspective of measurement method, measurement system, measurement result verification, and measurement system application. The accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method were verified using the free-field underwater comparison method. The average difference between the two methods was less than 1 dB (1 V/μ bar), which meets the practical requirements (±3 dB). In addition, the coupling effect of different coupling agents, the full contact time of coupling agents, and the epoxy adhesive bonding process were further analyzed based on the proposed method and system, and satisfactory improvement results were obtained.