Fuel sensors have to work in aggressive fuels that may contain water, alcohols, organic acids, sulfur compounds and fluorine from the tank walls. Therefore, it is essential that the materials used exhibit superior resistance and reliability.
Important properties for these conductors are the migration, chemical and wear resistance.
Heraeus offers a variety of thick film pastes to meet the challenges of a fuel sensor:
For lower cost options the Ag/Pd pastes (C43xx - series as standard versions or C22xx - series as new lead free versions) meet the requirements.
Some automobile manufacturers have issued a ban on the use of any Ag used in the fuel level sensor. For these more stringent requirements Au/Pt/Pd alloy is required. C6011 and C6012 meet these requirements for long life, and resistance to Ag2S formation.