After 30 years of designing and manufacturing pressure sensors, we at Merit Sensor are happy to see our products used in so many applications. In the past year we were fortunate to support the surge in global demand for mechanical ventilators (read more here), while we continued to support other medical applications, such as blood-pressure transducers and diagnostic equipment. But our pressure sensors are used far beyond the medical field. They have been integrated for use in aerospace, automotive, consumer, and industrial fields. And more and more we see our products used in novel ways within these industries.

There are a couple of main factors that have helped us to flourish during the past 30 years. One has been the solid support of our parent company, Merit Medical. The other has been our involvement in the different aforementioned industries. The following discussion of our history and expertise will shed some light on these factors.

Our History

In 1991 Fred Lampropoulos, Chairman and CEO of Merit Medical Systems, founded Sentir Semiconductor. Sentir Semiconductor became a reliable pressure-sensor supplier for Merit Medical’s digital inflation syringe. In 1999 Sentir Semiconductor was vertically integrated with Merit Medical, and in 2002 the name Sentir Semiconductor was changed to Merit Sensor Systems.

In 2004 the building of a new and improved facility on the Merit Medical campus in South Jordan, Utah, commenced. This construction included a class 100 (ISO 5) cleanroom for wafer fabrication, commonly known in the industry as a wafer fab or simply a fab.

Our Expertise

Owning and operating a fab allows us to develop unique technologies and keep them in house and also to closely monitor and control our processes. In addition to owning and operating a fab, we also have very specialized testing and calibration equipment for characterizing the performance of our pressure sensors.

Not only do we have the equipment, but we also have the expertise gained from years of experience working with technical experts in different industries. With our experience as a guide we have been able to design MEMS silicon die and pressure-sensor packages that offer the bridge configurations, pressure types (e.g., absolute, gauge, vacuum, and differential), sensitivity, stability, accuracy, media compatibility (e.g., for wet and harsh environments), temperature tolerance, and output options that provide the most value to the end application and to the customer.

Today we continue to provide pressure sensors to our parent company, while also serving many other special customers from various industries around the world.

We look forward to another 30 years of growth and success!