Thermal thermistor

The main use of lead metaborate is in glazes on pottery, porcelain, and chinaware, as weU as in enamels for cast iron. Other appHcations include as radiation-shielding plastics, as a gelatinous thermal insulator containing asbestos fibers for neutron shielding, and as an additive to improve the properties of semiconducting materials used in thermistors (137). 

Electronic. Diamonds have been used as thermistors and radiation detectors, but inhomogeneities within the crystals have seriously limited these appHcations where diamond is an active device. This situation is rapidly changing with the availabiHty of mote perfect stones of controUed chemistry from modem synthesis methods. The defect stmcture also affects thermal conductivity, but cost and size are more serious limitations on the use of diamond as a heat sink material for electronic devices. 

Thermal Methods Level-measuring systems may be based on the difference in thermal characteristics oetween the fluids, such as temperature or thermal conductivity. A fixed-point level sensor based on the difference in thermal conductivity between two fluids consists of an electrically heated thermistor inserted into the vessel. The temperature of the thermistor and consequently its electrical resistance increase as the thermal conductivity of the fluid in which it is immersed decreases. Since the thermal conductivity of liquids is markedly higher than that of vapors, such a device can be used as a point level detector for liquid-vapor interface. 

A thermistor is a thermally sensitive, semiconductor solid-state device, which can only sense and not monitor (cannot read) the temperature of a sensitive part of equipment where it is located. It can operate precisely and consistently at the preset value. The response time is low and is of the order of 5-10 seconds. Since it is only a temperature sensor, it does not indicate the temperature of the windings or where it is located but only its preset condition. 

Kolfertz, G., Full thermal protection with PTC thermistors of three-phase squirrel cage motors, Siemens Review, 32, No. 12 (1965). 

The signal from a suitable thermistor placed at the evaporator outlet will vary, depending on whether it senses dry refrigerant gas or traces of liquid. This can be used directly to control the current through a thermal element to modulate the expansion valve. This de vice usually has no separate adjustable controller and so cannot be incorrectly set (see Figure 8.10). 

Thermal conductivity detector. The most important of the bulk physical property detectors is the thermal conductivity detector (TCD) which is a universal, non-destructive, concentration-sensitive detector. The TCD was one of the earliest routine detectors and thermal conductivity cells or katharometers are still widely used in gas chromatography. These detectors employ a heated metal filament or a thermistor (a semiconductor of fused metal oxides) to sense changes in the thermal conductivity of the carrier gas stream. Helium and hydrogen are the best carrier gases to use in conjunction with this type of detector since their thermal conductivities are much higher than any other gases on safety grounds helium is preferred because of its inertness. 

For isothermal measurements, it is advisable to use a furnace of low thermal capacity unless suitable arrangements can be made to transport the sample into a preheated zone. The Curie point method [132] of temperature calibration is ideally suited for microbalance studies with a small furnace. A unijunction transistor relaxation oscillator, with a thermistor as the resistive part with completion of the circuit through the balance suspension, has been suggested for temperature measurements within the limited range 298—433 K [133]. 

Technically, two matched thermistors are placed within a thermally insulated compartment with a saturated solvent atmosphere. A droplet of solvent is placed onto one, a droplet of solute onto the other thermistor (Figure 4). Solvent will condense into the solution droplet and raise its temperature until the solution has the same vapour pressure as the solvent. At this point, the temperature difference between the two droplets is read. Solvents with sufficient vapour pressure, such as toluene, tetrahydrofuran, or chloroform, are best suited for strong signals, but water has also been used successfully. 

Many years later in Singapore, we were using a specially formulated thermally conductive glue to fix the overtemperature sensing thermistor smack on to the very plastic body of the TO-220 power transistor. We had empirically ascertained that in this way, the junction temperature and the adjacent temperature as seen by the thermistor were less than 10°C apart, even during an abnormal event. So if, for example, we wanted to have the transistor turned off just before it hit 150°C, we simply needed to set the trip temperature (of the thermistor-based circuit) at about 140°C. In that way, we could also be sure that we wouldn t encounter nuisance tripping on a particularly hot day, when the temperature inside the enclosure would also be much higher. 

The power which must be supplied to the thermistor to measure its resistance depends on the noise level and on the detection system. The latter is the main responsible for the total noise (a few nV/v/Hz), since the resistors are at low temperature and, hence, then-thermal noise can be usually neglected (see eq. (9.17)). 

NTD wafers were produced by irradiating natural ultra pure Ge crystals by means of a flux of thermal neutrons (see Section 15.2.2). To realize the electrical contacts, both sides of the wafers (disks, 3 cm in diameter, 3 mm thick) were doped by implantation with B ions to a depth of 200nm. The implanted layers are doped to such a high concentration that the semiconductor becomes metallic. Then a layer of Pd (about 20 nm) and Au (about 400 nm) was sputtered onto the both sides of the wafers. Finally, the wafers were annealed at 200°C for 1 h. The wafers are cut to produce thermistors of length 3 mm between the metallized ends (3x3x1 mm3 typical size) the electrical contacts are made by ball bonding with Au wires. 

The HEM is a thermal model which represents a doped semiconductor thermistor (e.g. Ge NTD) as made up of two subsystems carriers (electrons or holes) and phonons. Each subsystem has its own heat capacity and is thermally linked to the other one through a thermal conductance which takes into account for the electron-phonon decoupling (see Fig. 15.2). 

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). 

In this simplified model, the thermal elements due to the electrical wiring from the thermistor to the copper frame (heat sink) have been omitted for the sake of simplicity. 

The detailed investigation of superconducting (Al) bolometers is due to Clarke and Richards [64,65], This bolometer had a very low heat capacity and reached the thermal fluctuation noise limits. This bolometer needed a much more complex electronics than those using Ge thermistors. 

Let us remember that the bolometer noise consists of two contributions [82] the phonon noise caused by fluctuations in the transfer of thermal energy between the bolometer and the heat sink and the Johnson noise due to the thermistor resistance. 

Positive temperature coefficient (PCT) thermistors are solids, usually consisting of barium titanate, BaTiOi, in which the electrical resistivity increases dramatically with temperature over a narrow range of temperatures (Fig. 3.38). These devices are used for protection against power, current, and thermal overloads. When turned on, the thermistor has a low resitivity that allows a high current to flow. This in turn heats the thermistor, and if the temperature rise is sufficiently high, the device switches abruptly to the high resisitvity state, which effectively switches off the current flow. 

The sample chamber of the osmometer shown in figure above consists of a foaminsulated thermal block containing solvent. The chamber is machined such that the syringes can be lowered in order to apply a drop of solution to one thermistor and a drop of solvent to the other without any need to open the system. The syringe tips and the thermistors can be viewed through the minar viewing path located on the side of the sample chamber. 

Figure 2.9 — General types of continuous-flow electric, thermal and mass sensors. S sample. SMZ sensitive microzone. E electrode. PC piezoelectric crystal. T thermistor. For details, see text. (Reproduced from [1] with permission of the Royal Society of Chemistry).

Thermal and mass flow-through sensors rely on differential measurements owing to the low selectivity of these types of detection. They use two flow-cells arranged in series (Fig. 2.9.B) or parallel (Fig. 2.9.C), each containing a sensitive microelement (a piezoelectric crystal or a thermistor). One of the cells houses the sensitive microzone, whereas the other is empty or accommodates an inert support containing no immobilized reagent (e.g. see [35]). 

Each time the downstream thermistor detects the thermal pulse, it triggers another pulse upstream and the cycle repeats as long as flow continues. Therefore, it monitors the flow rate continuously. In our system, the flow rate was determined to be 0.93 ml/rain when the nominal flow rate was set at 1.0 ml/min with THE as mobile phase operating at 40°C. 

Composite-based PTC thermistors are potentially more economical. These devices are based on a combination of a conductor in a semicrystalline polymer—for example, carbon black in polyethylene. Other fillers include copper, iron, and silver. Important filler parameters in addition to conductivity include particle size, distribution, morphology, surface energy, oxidation state, and thermal expansion coefficient. Important polymer matrix characteristics in addition to conductivity include the glass transition temperature, Tg, and thermal expansion coefficient. Interfacial effects are extremely important in these materials and can influence the ultimate electrical properties of the composite. 

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