Sensors heat capacities

Because of its small size and portabiHty, the hot-wire anemometer is ideally suited to measure gas velocities either continuously or on a troubleshooting basis in systems where excess pressure drop cannot be tolerated. Furnaces, smokestacks, electrostatic precipitators, and air ducts are typical areas of appHcation. Its fast response to velocity or temperature fluctuations in the surrounding gas makes it particularly useful in studying the turbulence characteristics and rapidity of mixing in gas streams. The constant current mode of operation has a wide frequency response and relatively lower noise level, provided a sufficiently small wire can be used. Where a more mgged wire is required, the constant temperature mode is employed because of its insensitivity to sensor heat capacity. In Hquids, hot-film sensors are employed instead of wires. The sensor consists of a thin metallic film mounted on the surface of a thermally and electrically insulated probe. 

In the case of a temperature probe, the capacity is a heat capacity C == me, where m is the mass and c the material heat capacity, and the resistance is a thermal resistance R = l/(hA), where h is the heat transfer coefficient and A is the sensor surface area. Thus the time constant of a temperature probe is T = mc/ hA). Note that the time constant depends not only on the probe, but also on the environment in which the probe is located. According to the same principle, the time constant, for example, of the flow cell of a gas analyzer is r = Vwhere V is the volume of the cell and the sample flow rate. 

Due also to their (amorphous) composition, the heat capacity of a ruthenium oxide resistor is much higher than that of a Ge thermistor of equal mass [61]. This negative property prevents the use of Ru02 resistors as detector sensors (see Chapter 15). 

A lock-in present in a bridge for cryogenics has usually a reference at frequencies between 10 and 1000 Hz. Electrical power delivered to the resistive sensors are between 10-16 -7-10-14 W. The maximum measuring rates are usually less than 10 readings for second. The latter fact poses severe limits in dynamic measurements as, e.g., the measurement of heat capacity (see Section 12.6.4). 

In Table 12.1, the contributions to the heat capacity Csp of the addendum are shown specific heat data references are reported in ref. [20], A factor 1/3 was attributed to the heat capacity contribution of the elements linking the crystal to the frame [15], Note that the electron heat capacity of the NTD Ge 31 sensor was derived from the electron... 

Low-temperature thermometers are obtained by cutting a metallized wafer of NTD Ge into chips of small size (typically few mm3) and bonding the electrical contacts onto the metallized sides of the chip. These chips are seldom used as calibrated thermometers for temperatures below 30 mK, but find precious application as sensors for low-temperature bolometers [42,56], When the chips are used as thermometers, i.e. in quasi-steady applications, their heat capacity does not represent a problem. In dynamic applications and at very low temperatures T < 30 mK, the chip heat capacity, together with the carrier-to-phonon thermal conductance gc d, (Section 15.2.1.3), determines the rise time of the pulses of the bolometer. 

Because of their high heat capacity, only few of the thermometers described in Chapter 9 can be used as sensors for detectors. Resistance (carbon) sensors were used for the first time in a cryogenic detector by Boyle and Rogers [12] in 1959. The carbon bolometer had a lot of advantages over the existing infrared detectors [13]. It was easy to build, inexpensive and of moderate heat capacity due to the low operating temperature. 

Figure 15.8 shows the thermal scheme of one detector there are six lumped elements with three thermal nodes at Tu T2, r3, i.e. the temperatures of the electrons of Ge sensor, Te02 absorber and PTFE crystal supports respectively. C), C2 and C3 are the heat capacity of absorber, PTFE and NTD Ge sensor respectively. The resistors Rx and R2 take into account the contact resistances at the surfaces of PTFE supports and R3 represents the series contribution of contact and the electron-phonon decoupling resistances in the Ge thermistor (see Section 15.2.1.3). 

Early bolometers used, as thermometers, thermopiles, based on the thermoelectric effect (see Section 9.4) or Golay cells in which the heat absorbed in a thin metal film is transferred to a small volume of gas the resulting pressure increase moves a mirror in an optical amplifier. A historical review of the development of radiation detectors until 1994 can be found in ref. [59,60], The modern history of infrared bolometers starts with the introduction of the carbon resistor, as both bolometer sensor and absorber, by Boyle and Rogers [12], The device had a number of advantages over the Golay cell such as low cost, simplicity and relatively low heat capacity at low temperatures. 

Similar to the DTA system noted above, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) consists of a sample cell and reference cell, where platinum sensors detect the temperature in each cell. In the case of DSC, however, each cell possesses an individual heater (Figure 18.11B) so that energy input to the individual heaters is recorded as the instrument attempts to maintain equivalent temperatures in each cell while scanning a preset temperature range. The detector thus is able to directly measure the difference in heat capacity between the sample cell and the reference cell. 

In the classical differential thermal analysis (DTA) system both sample and reference are heated by a single heat source. The two temperatures are measured by sensors embedded in the sample and reference. In the so-called Boersma system, the temperature sensors are attached to the sample pans. The data are recorded as the temperature difference between sample and reference as a function of time (or temperature). The object of these measurements is generally the determination of enthalpies of changes, and these in principle can be obtained from the area under a peak together with a knowledge of the heat capacity of the material, the total thermal resistance to heat flow of the sample and a number of other experimental factors. Many of these parameters are often difficult to determine hence, DTA methods have some inherent limitations regarding the determination of precise calorimetric values. 

As opposed to inertial sensors, micromachined anemometers are often based on micro hot plates, that is, combinations of heaters and thermometers on thermally insulating membranes or multilayered thin films [4]. Functional sensor parameters are obviously determined by thermal conductivities and heat capacities, which can be monitored to reject faulty chips. Until recently, suitable wafer-level testing methods have not been available, and most sensor designs were based on literature values, despite the fact that these values depend strongly on fabrication processing parameters. 

The temperature and pressure dependency of the flow sensor is determined by the functional dependency of the heat capacity Cp = f(T,P). The influence of changes in pressure is insignificant. Temperature changes between 18 and 40 "C can account for an error of up to 2.5 <%. 

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