ID NO : 2009B5A8546G INTRODUCTION Temperature sensors are vital to a variety of everyday products. For example, household ovens, refrigerators, and thermostats all rely on temperature maintenance and control in order to function properly. Temperature control also has applications in chemical engineering. Examples of this include maintaining the temperature of a chemical reactor at the ideal set-point, monitoring the temperature of a possible runaway reaction to ensure the safety of employees, and maintaining the temperature of streams released to the environment to minimize harmful environmental impact. While temperature is generally sensed by humans as hot, neutral, or cold, chemical engineering requires precise, quantitative measurements of temperature in order to accurately control a process. This is achieved through the use of temperature sensors, and temperature regulators which process the signals they receive from sensors. From a thermodynamics perspective, temperature changes as a function of the average energy of molecular movement. As heat is added to a system, molecular motion increases and the system experiences an increase in temperature. It is difficult, however, to directly measure the energy of molecular movement, so temperature sensors are generally designed to measure a property which changes in response to temperature. The devices are then calibrated to traditional temperature scales using a standard (i.e. the boiling point of water at known pressure). These devices sometimes need to be small but sensitive hence the need for MICRO devices. There are many different types of Temperature Sensor available and all have different characteristics depending upon their actual application. Temperature sensors consist of two basic physical types: Contact Temperature Sensor Types - These types of temperature sensor are required to be in physical contact with the object being sensed and use conduction to monitor changes in temperature. They can be used to detect solids, liquids or gases over a wide range of temperatures. Non-contact Temperature Sensor Types - These types of temperature sensor use convection and radiation to monitor changes in temperature. They can be used to detect liquids and gases that emit radiant energy as heat rises and cold settles to the bottom in convection currents or detect the radiant energy being transmitted from an object in the form of infra-red radiation (the sun).
Construction , Principle of Operation and Applications Infrared Temperature sensors: Infrared is an Electromagnetic radiation with wavelength between 750nm to 1mm. Other part of electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, micro waves, visible light, ultraviolet, x rays and Gamma rays. The Infrared technology can be used to measure the temperature of the target. Every object with temperature above absolute zero emits electromagnetic radiation. Infrared radiation using optics is focused on to the sensor. Depending on the intensity of the radiation the sensor will give the output. The electrical signal is then used to get the temperature. Applications Tire temperature measurement, Brake temperature measurement
Semiconductor based single chip temperature sensors- Manufactured in SOT23-6 and MSOP-8 packages, TMP141 measures temperature from -40 to 125C without external sensing components. It features 10-bit resolution digital output and single-wire Sensor Path interface protocol. Suited for space-restricted applications, It has 170 A max operating current and extended supply range of 2.7A, 5.5 V. It is suited for monitoring hardware systems in servers and PCs as well as battery-powered instruments.
Miniature fiber-optic temperature sensors based on silica/polymer microfiber knot resonators: The silica microfibers used in this work are fabricated by flamed-heated taper-drawing of a single-mode fiber while poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer microfibers are fabricated by direct drawing of solvated polymers that have been reported elsewhere [5]. These microfibers with minimum diameter of <200 nm and length up to millimeters showed smooth outer surface morphology without pronounced bending or obvious structural defects. They also have the much smaller radius of curvature than that of standard optical fibers to form more compact optical structures. As the substrate of the MKR, a MgF2 crystal plate is adopted due to its low index and good thermal conductivity. The MKRs are assembled by manipulating with two fiber- tapers under the microscope. A microfiber taper, which is used work as the collecting fiber, is arranged adjacent to the freestanding end of SMKR to form a coupler, the two microfibers can attract tightly with the Van Der Waals and electrostatic attractive force in the coupling region. There need two microfiber tapers to connect to the both free-standing ends of the PMKR, this two microfiber tapers work as the launching and collecting fibers, coupling to the polymer microfiber by evanescent wave. Finally, a layer of MgF2 film is coated above the SMKR/PMKR to keep the sensor steady and environment immunity. In this experiment, a broadband ASE laser was used as the light source. Light passing through the MKRs will generate the resonant signals, an optical spectrometer (ANDO-AQ6317B) was used for detecting the output spectra of these temperature sensors, while a hotplate with 0.5 resolution and temperature range from 30 to 850 was used for the experiments. Applications : s. miniature temperature sensors could find important applications where micro space, high-resolution and fast temperature response is essential, such as in thermal property study of nano-devices, cells, MEMS. Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors : Both FOT-L temperature sensors feature complete immunity to EMI and RFI, miniature size, built-in safety for hazardous environments, extreme temperature resistance, high precision, and resistance to corrosive environments. Fiber optic technology provides intrinsic immunity to EMI and RFI. Fiber optic sensors are not electronically active and do not emit nor are they affected by any type of EM radiation, whether it is microwave, RF, or NMR. Another important advantage of optical bers is the capability it provides to produce miniature components without compromising the physical characteristics of the bulk material. Optical ber is optimized in size to provide the smallest possible light path. Thanks to this advantage, ber optic sensors may feature tip diameters as small as 0.8 mm. FISOs ber optic temperature sensors provide accurate, stable, and repeatable measurements. These measurements are based on variations of the reected light when compared to the emitted light due to thermal expansion of the highly stable glass used within the sensor. The FOT-L-SD is sheathed with PTFE and has a temperature range from as low as 40C up to 300C (40F to 572F).The FOT-L-BA is designed with a much smaller diameter to provide an even faster response time, while withstand temperatures of up to 250C.All our temperature sensors are designed to work with FISOs line of signal conditioners. The ber optic lead cable can be up to several meters long without affecting the quality or the accuracy of the results. Flexible Carbon Nanotube Based Temperature Sensor for Ultra-Small-Site Applications : The proposed design concept is for a micro scale temperature sensing device that uses nano scale sensing elements for added performance. This device will take advantage of the expanding properties of a metal or polymer material under a thermal change. Initial effort was put towards predicting the change in resistance of a CNT network as strain is applied based on the design concept selected in Chapter 3, where the expanding element pushes in a perpendicular direction to the length of the CNT network. However, there was one primary issue that arose: there is not enough information available from previous studies to allow for an accurate prediction of this relationship with the perpendicular straining mechanism, on which the rest of the modeling and formulation could rely. The perpendicular method for manipulating the strain would involve calculations as well as experimentation in order to characterize the relationship well enough to design the rest of the sensor. Fabricating a prototype just to examine the strain-resistance relationship was not an option based on the time frame of the project. The group was, however, able to conduct a late interview and obtain a paper by Professor Mft et. al. which had already characterized the trend between strain and the resistance of a CNT network, as long as the strain is produced by stretching the CNT network only in the lengthwise direction. This interview is shown in Chapter 3 even though the information was obtained after modeling and analysis had already begun. The new information led to a design change. The following diagram and discussion shows the improved concept, which allows the use of the aforementioned relationship to predict the behavior more accurately. Application: Firstly, it can be concluded that manufacturing cost is the primary factor preventing CNT devices from being commercialized. It follows that reducing the costs associate with nanomanufactured devices would lead to sensors becoming commercially available. Due to the advanced properties of CNTs, it is possible that a single CNT sensor design could achieve the performance required for use in many small-scale applications, to sense many different properties, whereas other sensors are usually designed for a specific high-technology micro or nano-scale application. Interestingly, if the superior properties of CNTs could be used to create a highly applicable temperature sensing device, the possibility for batch fabrication of a single generic sensor design becomes realistic. With increased potential for batch fabrication, comes lower manufacturing costs. Thermistors : The Thermistor is another type of temperature sensor, whose name is a combination of the words THERM-ally sensitive res-ISTOR. A thermistor is a type of resistor which changes its physical resistance with changes in temperature. Thermistors are generally made from ceramic materials such as oxides of nickel, manganese or cobalt coated in glass which makes them easily damaged. Their main advantage over snap-action types is their speed of response to any changes in temperature, accuracy and repeatability.Most types of thermistor's have a Negative Temperature Coefficient of resistance or (NTC), that is their resistance value goes DOWN with an increase in the temperature but some with a Positive Temperature Coefficient, (PTC), their resistance value goes UP with an increase in temperature are also available. Thermistors are constructed from a ceramic type semiconductor material using metal oxide technology such as manganese, cobalt and nickel, etc. The semiconductor material is generally formed into small pressed discs or balls which are hermetically sealed to give a relatively fast response to any changes in temperature. Thermistors are rated by their resistive value at room temperature (usually at 25 o C), their time constant (the time to react to the temperature change) and their power rating with respect to the current flowing through them. Like resistors, thermistors are available with resistance values at room temperature from 10's of M down to just a few Ohms, but for sensing purposes those types with values in the kilo-ohms are generally used. RTD (Resistive Temperature devices) - Another type of electrical resistance temperature sensor is the Resistance Temperature Detector orRTD. RTD's are precision temperature sensors made from high-purity conducting metals such as platinum, copper or nickel wound into a coil and whose electrical resistance changes as a function of temperature, similar to that of the thermistor. Also available are thin- film RTD's. These devices have a thin film of platinum paste is deposited onto a white ceramic substrate.Resistive temperature detectors have positive temperature coefficients (PTC) but unlike the thermistor their output is extremely linear producing very accurate measurements of temperature. However, they have poor sensitivity, that is a change in temperature only produces a very small output change for example, 1/ o C. The more common types of RTD's are made from platinum and are called Platinum Resistance Thermometer or PRT's with the most commonly available of them all the Pt100 sensor, which has a standard resistance value of 100 at 0 o C. The downside is that Platinum is expensive and one of the main disadvantages of this type of device is its cost.Like the thermistor, RTD's are passive resistive devices and by passing a constant current through the temperature sensor it is possible to obtain an output voltage that increases linearly with temperature. A typical RTD has a base resistance of about 100 at 0 o C, increasing to about 140 at 100 o C with an operating temperature range of between -200 to +600 o C. Conclusion Depending on the application, location, working parameters, sensitivity requires , size constraints if any and a array of other constraints we choose one of the above mentioned devices as per our requirement for temperature measurement .We suitably interface the transducer with a control system or controller of any kind to suitably adjust or control the temperature for whatever purpose we may have or simply observe the temperatures and its fluctuations within a given system . References 1. G. Brambilla, F. Xu, and X. Feng, Fabrication of optical fibre nanowires and their optical and mechanical characterisation, Electron. Lett. 42, 517-519 (2006). 2. Y. J. Rao, In-fibre Bragg grating sensors, Meas. Sci. & Technol., 8, 355 (1997). 3. Y. J. Rao, Recent Progress in Fiber-Optic Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometric Sensors, Optical Fiber Technology, 12, 227-237 (2006). 4. Miniature fiber-optic temperature sensors based on silica/polymer microfiber knot resonators - Yu Wu, Yun-Jiang Rao* and Yi- huai Chen 5. Multiwalled carbon nanotube films as small-sized temperature sensors - Di Bartolomeo, A. Department of Physics, University of Salerno, via S. Allende, 84081 Baronissi (SA), Italy Sarno, M. ; Giubileo, F. ; Altavilla, C. ; Iemmo, L. ; Piano, S.; Bobba, F. ; Longobardi, M. ; Scarfato, A. ; Sannino, D. ; Cucolo, A. M. ; Ciambelli, P. 6. Flexible Carbon Nanotube Based Temperature Sensor for Ultra-Small-Site Applications - Brendan Crawford Dan Esposito Vishal Jain David Pelletier. 7. http://sensors-actuators-info.blogspot.in 8. www.temperatures.com