Process Measurements Division Overview

About the Process Measurements Division

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Mission

The Process Measurements Division establishes, disseminates, and extends the realization of national measurement standards for temperature, humidity, pressure and vacuum, fluid flow, air speed, liquid density and volume. Measurement science research efforts seek to develop the knowledge base from which new measurement methods, technologies, and standards can be developed. Standards are realized and disseminated to U.S.industry, academia, and other government agencies via NIST measurement services. Research results often take the form of recommended practices, new sensing technologies and instrumentation, and reference data or mathematical models required for analysis, control, and optimization of industrial processes. 

Overview

The activities of the Process Measurements Division support the NIST and CSTL in the program areas of:

• Bioscience and Health
• Electronics and Telecommunications
• Environment
• Energy
• Public Safety and Security
• Measurement Standards.

Research and standards dissemination activities in these programs are performed using the following organization structure composed of 5 groups: 

• Fluid Metrology Group
• Nanoscale and Optical Metrology Group
• Pressure and Vacuum Group
• Process Sensing Group
• Thermometry Group

Measurement standards and realization efforts are located in the Fluid Metrology, Thermometry, and Pressure and Vacuum Groups whose efforts contribute to the Measurement Standards program. Measurement standards are disseminated through provision of NIST instrument calibration services. Research is focused on development of new standards realization methods where there is an anticipated industrial need for improvement coupled with the potential for substantial improvement in either the realization of the unit or in its dissemination, e.g., the retail dispensing of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel.

Research efforts in the Bioscience and Health program are focused on developing new measurement approaches having the potential for enhancing process control in bio-manufacturing, particularly of biotechnology therapeutics, and in more traditional metrology areas such as efforts to ensure the integrity of the so-called “cold chain” that supports the distribution of vaccines. Efforts in the Electronics and Telecommunications program are focused on the development and demonstration of in-situ measurements in atomic layer deposition systems and the development of new metrology tools applicable to emerging device areas such as molecular and organic electronic materials. Research activities related to the environment are attempting to measure the absorption properties of both atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases. In the latter case, world-class, frequency stabilized-cavity ringdown spectroscopy capabilities are measuring absorption line shapes of water vapor, oxygen, and CO₂ in the near IR at previous unattained accuracy levels in support of new remote atmospheric measurement systems related to climate change. Research efforts in the Public Safety and Security program address the need for next generation gas sensing technology capable of real-time identification and quantitation of toxic industrial chemicals and chemical agents and standards and methods supporting performance evaluation of existing and future detection technologies.

Core Expertise

To address its research and standards objectives, the Process Measurements Division utilizes a range of expertise in the physical sciences and engineering. Specific to the realization and dissemination of measurement standards, Division staff members have expertise in:

• primary methods for the quantification of liquid and gas supporting flowrate and vacuum measurements and standards;
• Computational fluid dynamics;
• Acoustic and microwave measurements techniques applied to absolute thermometry and the thermophysical properties of fluids and fluid mixtures;
• Primary manometry and all types of pressure metrology;
• Primary acoustic and noise thermometry;
• Development and operation of fixed-point cells defining temperature scales;
• Thermodynamic generation of moisture in gases – humidity standards;

Expertise in the following area is used to address a range of measurement science research.

• Plasma processes, models, radio frequency and optical diagnostic;
• MEMS microsensor arrays, deposition of gas sensitive thin films, and signal processing of complex data streams;
• Particle sizing for biological systems, e.g., size exclusion chromatography, ultra centrifugation, and differential mobility analysis;
• Aerosol transport and diagnostics;
• Combustion processes and liquid atomization;
• Chemical self-assembly applied to nanostructures and thin films and new metrology tools for their characterization;
• Frequency-stabilized cavity ring-down spectroscopy;
• X-ray photoemission, optical and 2 photon photoelectron spectroscopic tools for emerging microelectronic devices.

Key Interactions with Customers

The primary customers of the Division’s instrument calibration services are the instrumentation and analytical instruments industry and other government agencies and their contractors. Semiconductor metrology research addresses current and future needs for improved process performance and new devices and materials. The environmental-monitoring communities benefit from spectral reference data of the highest accuracy. Biological particle sizing and investigation of protein absorption characteristics on surfaces supports bio-manufacturing and healthcare.

Future Directions and Plans

The Process Measurements Division will continue to provide state of the art measurement standards for its areas of responsibility. New realization methods continue to be an active area of research as is extension of calibration services. We are expanding calibration capabilities for high humidity levels, the retail sale of hydrogen for vehicle fueling, and pipeline-scale natural gas flows. Development of new metrology tools for characterization of future generation electronic device materials and for real-time or near real-time measurements in bio-manufacturing. Also, in the bio-manufacturing area, new measurements and protocol development for near real time monitoring or protein glycosylation and protein aggregation, key critical quality attributes for nearly all protein therapeutics.