Vaisala BAROCAP® Sensor for Measuring Pressure

The story of BAROCAP began in the late 1970s during preliminary micromechanical pressure sensor studies for the new-generation Vaisala Radiosonde RS80.

Micromechanics proved to be challenging, and Vaisala worked in close cooperation with universities and research institutes in Finland and internationally to develop a new pressure-sensing technology based on silicon processing. The critical breakthrough came on the brink of the project deadline.

The first BAROCAP sensors were delivered to two icebreakers and the Helsinki Telephone Company. BAROCAP sensors have traveled to places where no human has ever set foot, including as part of several Mars exploration missions and the Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its largest moon, Titan. BAROCAP’s out-of-this-world journey continues with its inclusion in instruments that form part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, launched in November 2011.