Metal temperature sensors

A critical installation should have the metal temperature sensors in the thrust pad. Axial proximity probes may be used as a backup system. If metal temperatures are high and the rate of change of those temperatures begins to alter rapidly, thrust-bearing failure should be anticipated. 

Temperature sensors, sueh as RTDs (Resistanee Temperature Deteetors), thermoeouples, and thermistors, ean be installed direetly in the thrust bearing to measure metal temperature. The installation shown in Figure 21-9 has the RTD embedded in the babbitted surfaee. It is in the most sensitive... 

The other limit is the problem of temperature measurements. Classical temperature sensors could be avoided in relation to power level. Hence, temperature measurements will be distorted by strong electric currents induced inside the metallic wires insuring connection of temperature sensor. The technological solution is the optical fiber thermometers [35-39]. However, measurements are limited below 250 °C. For higher values, surface temperature can be estimated by infrared camera or pyrometer [38, 40], However, due to volumic character of microwave heating, surface temperatures are often inferior to core temperatures. 

A thermopile sensor generates an output voltage that depends on the temperature difference between its hot and cold contacts. For infrared temperature measurement, the hot contacts are normally thermally insulated and placed on a thin membrane, whereas the cold contacts are thermally connected to the metal housing. Infrared radiation, which is absorbed by the hot contacts of the thermopile, causes a temperature difference between hot and cold contacts. The resulting output voltage is a measure for the temperature difference between radiation source and cold contacts of the thermopile sensor. It is therefore necessary to measure also the temperature of the cold contacts by an additional ambient temperature sensor in order to determine the temperature of the radiation source. 

Thermopiles are considered temperature sensors and are fabricated incorporating a number of thermocouples. Each thermocouple is formed by a couple of different materials (Metall-Metal2, Metal-Semiconductor, Semiconductor-Semiconductor) and responds to a temperature difference localized between the two junctions (cold junction and warm junction ), see fig. 11. One of the two junctions can be considered the reference one. 

For optimum results, a melting point determination should have as many of the following characteristics as possible. The temperature sensor should be electronic, small and metallic in nature to quickly and accurately reflect the temperature of the system. The electronic... 

Consider temperature as an example. Temperature measurement is needed in a variety of laboratory applications and, in the modern laboratory, is done with a temperature sensor, such as a thermocouple. A thermocouple is a junction of two metals that produces a voltage proportional to temperature that can be measured via electrical connections to the two metals. The voltage difference between the two connections can be amplified by the difference amplifier discussed in Section 6.3.3. 

We stress that the above picture of the spectroscopy of metal complexes is an extremely simple-minded view of what can be an exceptionally complicated topic, although we do touch on most of the features important for room temperature sensors. 

The temperature dependence of luminescent metal complexes can be controlled by molecular design that affects the energy gap between the emitting state and the deactivating d-d or by altering the preexponential factor for thermal deactivation. The sometimes large temperature dependencies of lifetime and quantum yields for metal complexes also suggest their use as temperature sensors. 

During the last years, so-called microhotplates (pHP) have been developed in order to shrink the overall dimensions and to reduce the thermal mass of metal-oxide gas sensors [7,9,15]. Microhotplates consist of a thermally isolated stage with a heater structure, a temperature sensor and a set of contact electrodes for the sensitive layer. By using such microstructures, high operation temperatures can be reached at comparably low power consumption (< 100 mW). Moreover, small time constants on the order of 10 ms enable applying temperature modulation techniques with the aim to improve sensor selectivity and sensitivity. 

The third block in Fig. 2.1 shows the various possible sensing modes. The basic operation mode of a micromachined metal-oxide sensor is the measurement of the resistance or impedance [69] of the sensitive layer at constant temperature. A well-known problem of metal-oxide-based sensors is their lack of selectivity. Additional information on the interaction of analyte and sensitive layer may lead to better gas discrimination. Micromachined sensors exhibit a low thermal time constant, which can be used to advantage by applying temperature-modulation techniques. The gas/oxide interaction characteristics and dynamics are observable in the measured sensor resistance. Various temperature modulation methods have been explored. The first method relies on a train of rectangular temperature pulses at variable temperature step heights [70-72]. This method was further developed to find optimized modulation curves [73]. Sinusoidal temperature modulation also has been applied, and the data were evaluated by Fourier transformation [75]. Another idea included the simultaneous measurement of the resistive and calorimetric microhotplate response by additionally monitoring the change in the heater resistance upon gas exposure [74-76]. 

A cross-sectional schematic of a monolithic gas sensor system featuring a microhotplate is shown in Fig. 2.2. Its fabrication relies on an industrial CMOS-process with subsequent micromachining steps. Diverse thin-film layers, which can be used for electrical insulation and passivation, are available in the CMOS-process. They are denoted dielectric layers and include several silicon-oxide layers such as the thermal field oxide, the contact oxide and the intermetal oxide as well as a silicon-nitride layer that serves as passivation. All these materials exhibit a characteristically low thermal conductivity, so that a membrane, which consists of only the dielectric layers, provides excellent thermal insulation between the bulk-silicon chip and a heated area. The heated area features a resistive heater, a temperature sensor, and the electrodes that contact the deposited sensitive metal oxide. An additional temperature sensor is integrated close to the circuitry on the bulk chip to monitor the overall chip temperature. The membrane is released by etching away the silicon underneath the dielectric layers. Depending on the micromachining procedure, it is possible to leave a silicon island underneath the heated area. Such an island can serve as a heat spreader and also mechanically stabihzes the membrane. The fabrication process will be explained in more detail in Chap 4. 

The third microhotplate introduced in Sect. 4.3 was designed to extend the operation temperature limit imposed by the CMOS-metallization contacts in the heated area. A new heater design was devised, and a microfabrication sequence that enables the realization of Pt temperature sensors and Pt-electrodes was developed. This microhotplate was also monolithically integrated with circuitry as presented in Sect. 5.2, and operating temperatures of up to 500 °C have been achieved. 

The temperature sensor in the membrane center is made of polysilicon with a nominal resistance of 10 kQ. An additional reference resistor is needed for the control circuitry (Sect. 5.1). For the resistance measurement of the sensitive layer, platinum electrodes are deposited on top of the CMOS aluminum metallization in order to establish good electrical contact to the sensitive metal oxide. 

A novel microhotplate design was proposed to overcome the CMOS operating temperature limit and to avoid polysilicon-induced drift problems. A cross-sectional schematic of the device is shovm in Fig. 4.11. Instead of using a polysilicon resistor as temperature sensor, a platinum temperature sensor is patterned on the microhotplate. The Pt-metallization process step was used to simultaneously fabricate the electrodes and the temperature sensor. The CMOS-Al/Pt contacts are located off the membrane... 

The main goal of another microhotplate design was the replacement of all CMOS-metal elements within the heated area by materials featuring a better temperature stability. This was accomplished by introducing a novel polysilicon heater layout and a Pt temperature sensor (Sect. 4.3). The Pt-elements had to be passivated for protection and electrical insulation, so that a local deposition of a silicon-nitride passivation through a mask was performed. This silicon-nitride layer also can be varied in its thickness and with regard to its stress characteristics (compressive or tensile). This hotplate allowed for reaching operation temperatures up to 500 °C and it showed a thermal resistance of 7.6 °C/mW. 

To overcome the temperature limits of CMOS integrated systems that are imposed by, e.g., the degradation of the CMOS metallization, a microhotplate with Pt-temperature sensor was also monolithically integrated with circuitry so that the hotplate operating temperature range could be extended to 500 °C (Sect. 5.2). The read-out of the comparatively low Pt temperature sensor resistance required the integration of a fully differential amplifier architecture. 

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