Temperature and its Measurement

Simply speaking, temperature is the degree of hotness of the body which is a measure
of the heat content in the body. The problem to quantify the heat content of the body on
a scale did not arise until the invention of the Steam Engine. The curiosity of scientists
to understand the behavior of water at different levels of heat contents gave rise to a
formal and better laid out study. One of the first references for ‘temperature’ dates back
to 1760, when Joseph Black declared that applying the same heat to different materials
resulted in different temperatures. Years of rigorous scientific study led to many theories
ranging from the simple ‘Caloric’ concept, which treated heat as a material substance
which is exchanged among materials, to Carnot’s description of heat as a form of
energy (which laid the foundation of the first law of thermodynamics). However, none of
them satisfactorily explained the concept of temperature. It was Maxwell’s theory which
offered good reasoning into it. He defined temperature of a body as is its thermal
property which provides information about the energy content of the system. It is the
measure of the average kinetic energy (energy by virtue of motion) of the molecules of
the substance and signifies a heat potential due to which heat flows from higher
temperature to lower temperature.
 
The word ‘temperature’ itself is said to be derived of the Latin word ‘tempera’ meaning
‘moderate or soften’. Moving along Maxwell’s line of thought, the velocity of molecules
should be the basis of selecting the value of temperature, with absolute heatlessness
being a state where the molecules are totally static. But, this measurement is not
possible practically, and hence, other manifestations of the effect of heat are utilized to
measure temperature, for example, the geometric expansion of materials. A brief history
of temperature sensors with major milestones is shown in the figure below:

Types: Contact Temperature Sensors

Types of Temperature Sensors:
There are mainly two major classes of temperature sensors based on the sensing
distance:
1.      Contact Temperature Sensing: The sensor is brought into physical contact with
the object to be monitored. This method can be used with solids, liquids and gases. The
sensors used for measurement can vary from capillary bulb thermometers and bi-metal
sensors to sensors that use varying voltage signals or resistance values.
 
Expansion Thermometers: These sensors use Bi-metallic strips which have different
expansion rates at a particular temperature. Thus, this difference of expansion can be
translated into temperature change using a mechanical pointer. Though not very
accurate, these devices offer the advantage of being portable. Low cost applications like
time compensators in mechanical clocks, thermostats where a higher temperature may
open the contact as in heating control or may close it like in refrigerators make use of
bimetallic strips to open and close mechanical switches which in turn control electrical
switches like circuit breakers.
 
Filled System Thermometers: These devices are filled with some substitute which
expands or contracts due to temperature change. They may be filled with mercury.
However, as it is considered to be an environmental hazard, organic liquid types may be
used instead. These do not require any electric power to operate and are stable even
after repeated use. However, they do not provide any kind of reading storage solution
and also cannot make point measurements. These find use in medical industry to
measure body temperatures.
 
Voltage Signal based Sensors: Thermocouples are the main sensors of this category.
The underlying principle is the Seebeck effect. When two different metals or alloys are
placed together so as to form two junctions, a voltage is induced across the junctions
when there is a difference of temperatures between the junctions. These sensors are
capable of detecting very high temperatures (as high as 1700 o), have a very simplistic
design which makes them quite robust to shock and vibration and can have almost
immediate response to temperature changes. They however provide localized
temperature readings and need a cold junction compensation to maintain the
temperature gradient. Also, they are highly non-linear devices when compared to other
sensors and require extremely good algorithms on the part of the conditioning
electronics and processors to compensate for the non-linearity. Thermocouples find
application in extremely high temperature sensing applications, chemical reaction
monitoring, metal cutting, gas chromatography, sensing temperatures inside internal
combustion engines etc. owing to their wide temperature range and ruggedness;
however, if high accuracy and linearity are desired, other temperature sensors must be
used. Simple implementation ideas can be like the one in the following:

Fig. 3:  A Figure Illustrating Architecture of Voltage Signal based Sensors

  
Resistance Values based Sensors: The resistance of metals and semiconductors
offered to the flow of current through them changes with temperature. This change can
be monitored and mapped to various temperature values on a scale. Further, on
increasing the temperature, the value of resistance may increase or decrease.
Substances with a positive temperature coefficient like most metals undergo a positive
change of resistance with increasing temperature, while resistance of most
semiconductors decreases with increasing temperature owing to their negative
temperature coefficients. Based on the temperature coefficients, the Resistance
Temperature Detectors (RTD) can be further divided into two types:
·         Resistance Wire RTD: Mainly built with materials with positive resistance
coefficient materials like platinum, RTDs are resistive elements which exhibit predictable
change in resistance with temperature. The change of Resistance with temperature is
given by the relation:

Fig. 4:  An Equation Representing Change of Resistance with Temperature

 
Here, Rt  and Ro are the resistances of the material at temperatures t and t ooC and ? is
the Average temperature Coefficient.
 
These devices may be in the forms of Thin Film Resistors or Wire-wounded Resistors.
They offer a very wide linear range of temperature measurement (-200 to 650 oC) and
are very stable with minimal drift even with repeated operation year after year. A
platinum resistance RTD has been serving as the primary interpolation instrument by
the National Bureau of Standards. The signal output is quite large as compared to
thermocouples, and can use ordinary copper wires for extension. Also, these can be
spread over a large area. Such sensors may be mounted on one arm of a balanced
wheat stone bridge circuit as shown in the figure below and the entire circuit be used to
calculate and also control actuators for maintenance of temperature using feedback.
They provide the desired linear range of operation where thermocouples fall short.
RTDs find use in applications like cold junction compensation, calibration purposes, in a
wheat stone bridge circuit and process control. The linearity simplifies the
implementation of signal conditioning circuitry and makes RTDs suitable for high
precision applications. RTDs measure absolute temperature in contrast with the
thermocouples, and hence, might not be suitable for maintaining uniform temperature
throughout the surface like the thermocouples are used. 
 

Fig. 5: A Figure Representing Architecture of RTD

 
·         Thermistors: Semiconductors offer a variety of phenomenon and form the very
basis of electronics. Both Positive (PTC) and Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC)
semiconductors are present and sensors based on them are differentiated as cold-wire
PTC-thermistors and hot-wire NTC-thermistors. For PTC-Thermistors, Ferroelectricity is
the predominant phenomenon causing the positive coefficient in a short range of
temperature. The short temperature range of operation for these materials makes them
suitable for use as temperature limiting switches. They have been used successfully in
CRT monitors as timers in degaussing coils. They can be used as replacements for
fuses in the form of current limiting devices. If the current increases, more heat is
generated which heats up the thermistors. This increases the resistance which reduces
the current and voltage available to the device thus protecting it from increased
currents. For NTC-Thermistors, the relation between resistance and temperature is
negative and exponential which is very repeatable. In the range of use, this exponential
curve can be seen as a fairly linear plot and can even provide more sensitivity than
RTDs which makes them more attractive in terms of accuracy in measurements.
 

Fig. 6: A Plot of Exponential Curve Offering more Sensitivity than RTDs
Owing to their low costs, they find ample use in automotive and consumer products
industries like coolant and oil temperature monitors, incubator temperature
maintenance, low temperature thermometers, modern digital thermostats, battery pack
temperature monitors etc. A more recent application where NTC thermistors have been
used is 3D printing, where thermistors are used to maintain a constant temperature at
the hot end of 3D printers for the proper melting of pplastic filaments.
 
Integrated Silicon Temperature Sensors: Besides all these classifications, integrated
circuits have been designed to provide ease of use while measuring temperatures in the
desired scale. For example, the LM35 IC from Texas Instruments is a precision
temperature sensor IC that offers reading directly on the Celsius scale and LM34 is
another one offering readings on the Fahrenheit scale. These ICs provide Voltage
readings which are directly proportional to a certain multiplier of temperature and hence
can be directly read off a multimeter, or fed directly into an ADC for further processing.
They provide easy integration and interfacing with other elements of the circuit. Many
semiconductor companies like Analog Devices, Microchip, Smartek, ZMD and
STMicroelectronics are into temperature sensors design and even provide signal
processing circuitry and digital I/O interfaces for microcontrollers. These temperature
sensors find widespread use in consumer products like personal computers, office
electronics equipment, cellular phones, HVACs and battery management solutions.
 
Apart from these major principles of temperature measurement, other methods have
also been developed. Some of them are, oscillating quartz temperature sensors,
thermal noise thermometers, fiber optic thermometers and temperature measurement
systems.

Fig. 7: A Figure Representing Integrated Silicon Temperature Sensors

 

Non-Contacting Temperature Sensors

2.      Non-Contacting Temperature Measurement: These sensors make temperature
measurements without physically contacting the object to be monitored. The most
predominant method in this class of measuring sensors is Pyrometry which is an
Infrared Measurement Technology.
 
 Fig. 8:  A Figure Illustrating Non-Contacting Temperature Sensors
Pyrometry:      It is the process of interception and measurement of thermal radiation
with a non-contacting device. The radiations emanating from the body are focused on to
a radiation receiver using a lens as shown in figure above. The receiver can be any
sensitive device like thermocouple, photoresistor, photodiode etc. The transducer action
generates an electrical signal proportional to the amount of radiation which can be used
to measure temperature. Different types of pyrometers are used, a few of them being
total radiation pyrometer, distribution pyrometer, spectral pyrometer, disappearing
filament pyrometer etc. These devices seldom replace contact sensors as they give the
values of surface temperatures only.
 
Thermal Imaging Cameras: Though similar in principle to pyrometers, these devices
produce a thermal picture of the object. These are mainly used in monitoring and control
of machinery where localized heating can hamper normal operation.
 
Acoustic Measurements: Such devices are based on the principle of variation of
dispersion velocity of sound in various materials with temperature.
 

Absolute temperature = K v2

Here v is velocity of sound. Further, acoustic measurements may employ quartz

resonators or non-resonant methods like the Pulse-Echo principle of distance ranging.
They find use inside furnaces like incinerators.
 

Selection Criteria of Sensors

Selection Criteria of Temperature Sensors
None of the temperature sensing devices are versatile enough to be used everywhere.
If the thermocouples are known for their wide temperature range of operation, RTDs are
unrivalled in the linearity range and thermistors are very accurate while the silicon
sensors are easy to integrate in circuits. The use of a particular temperature sensor in
some applications is governed by a number of parameters, the most important being
temperature itself. The temperature range for the application, the rate at which the
temperature may change, etc. help decide the type of design. For example, for sensors
with high operating temperatures, special connection leads would be needed, while for
sensors which have to deal with temperature shocks, wire-wound type of construction is
preferred.
 
The stability and accuracy of the sensor at the prescribed operating conditions is
another major factor to weigh while choosing design. Sensitivity of the device to
measure small changes and how prone it is to self heating, determines the reliability of
the device and its performance. The response time of the sensor is often governed by
the size of the sensor. For example, the small dimensions of a film type resistor based
sensor result in minimal associated heat capacity and hence, short response times (0.1
s in water and 3 to 6s in air). In the same application area, wire type resistor would
respond in 0.2 to 0.5s in water and 4 to 25s in air. To aid you in choosing the right
temperature sensor for your application, a comparison table of the 4 popular sensors is
drawn below for easy reference.
 
Thermocoup
  RTD Thermistor Integrated SIlicon
le
Temperature
-270 - 1800°C -250 - 900°C -100 - 450°C -55 - 150°C
Range
Accuracy ±0.5°C ±0.01°C ±0.1°C ±1°C
Linearity
(Minimum
Linearization not
order of 4th order 2nd order 3rd order
required. Within
polynomial, polynomial polynomial polynomial
±1°C
lesser the
better)
0.00385 ?/?/° Several ?/ ?/°
Sensitivity ? 10µV/°C -2mV/°C
C (Pt) C
Hermetic
Quite thermistors
Larger the
susceptible housed in As rugged as an IC
gauge of wire,
Ruggedness to breakage glass, not in plastic package
more is the
due to affected by like a DIP.
ruggedness
vibration shock or
vibration
Responsivene
ss (test Tres<1s 1s<Tres<10s 1s<Tres<5s 4s<Tres<60s
conditions)
External
Current Voltage
Excitation None Supply Voltage
Source Source
Required
 Digital/Current/Volta
Output Voltage Resistance Resistance
ge
Cost $1 to $50 $25 to $1000 $2 to $10 $1 to $10
 
Apart from these considerations, the choice of contact or non-contact sensors is subject
to various other environmental conditions. While contact sensors may provide
economical measurements and are quite accurate, the need physical contact, which
may lead to contamination, wear and tear and heat sinking which alters the temperature
to be measured. On the other hand, non-contact sensing offers faster response and
monitoring from a remote location, but cannot measure gas temperatures and has
ambient temperature restrictions which may affect the readings.
 
Almost everything in this world and universe hangs in place with a delicate balance. Life
on earth was founded because the temperature was just right. Our body’s temperature
needs to be regulated, or else the enzymes might malfunction. The temperature of the
oceans gets a little higher, the Carbon Dioxide dissolved in it would get back into the
atmosphere, causing more warming. Air Conditioning works because we can actually
measure temperature and take corrective action. Electronic circuits perform optimally in
a specific range of temperature. Though temperature sensors might not be able to
ensure taste, but can definitely ensure that your meal is cooked just fine, and the wine
tastes just exquisite. No wonder temperature is so important that it has been defined as
one of the fundamental physical quantities of science.  Hence, the importance of
temperature sensors cannot be undermined.