2015-2016

PHYSICS
INVESTIGATO
RY PROJECT
Name Sudarshan Thakur
Class XII C
Roll no.
d

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Sudarshan Thakur studying in class XII- C of
Mount St Marys School has satisfactorily completed his physics
investigatory project under the guidance of Mr. Dhiraj Dhall
(physics teacher) during the year 2015-2016.

Signature of External Examiner

Signature of physics teacher

ACKNOWLEDGEME
NT
I would take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and
gratitude to my physics teacher Mr. Dhiraj Dhall for his invaluable
guidance, constant encouragement, constructive comments,
sympathetic attitude and immense motivation, which has sustained
my efforts at all stages of this project work. His valuable advice and
suggestions for the corrections, modifications and improvement did
enhance the perfection in performing my job well.
I take special pleasure in acknowledging our lab assistant Mr.
Pradeep Kumar for his willingness in providing us with necessary
lab equipments and constant support without which this effort
would have been worthless.

INDEX
1.
Introduction
2.
Experiment
I. Theory
II. Apparatus required
III. Procedure
IV. Observation
V. Conclusion
VI. Precautions
3.
Reference

AIM OF THE
PROJECT

TO LIGHT AN LED LAMP USING A

THERMISTOR (temperature sensor)

THERMISTOR
A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance is dependent
on temperature, more so than in standard resistors. The word is the
mix of thermal and resistor.
Thermistors are widely used as inrush current limiter,
temperature sensors (NTC type typically), self-resetting overcurrent
protectors, and self-regulating heating elements.

An NTC Thermistor
symbol for
diagram.
d

Themistor
circiuit

HISTORY

The first NTC thermistor was discovered in 1833 by Michael

Faraday, who reported on the semiconducting behavior of silver
sulfide.
Faraday noticed that the resistance of silversulfide decreased
dramatically as temperature increased. (This was also the first
documented observation of a semiconducting material.)
Because early thermistors were difficult to produce and
applications for the technology were limited, commercial
production of thermistors did not begin until the 1930s.
A commercially viable thermistor was invented by Samuel Ruben in
1930.

THEORY

BASIC CLASSIFICATION AND WORKING OF A

THERMISTOR
Assuming, as a first-order approximation, that the relationship
between resistance and temperature is linear, then:

where
, change in resistance
, change in temperature
, first-order temperature coefficient of resistance
Thermistors can be classified into two types, depending on
the classification of .
If is positive, the resistance increases with increasing
temperature, and the device is called a positive temperature
coefficient (PTC) thermistor, or posistor.
If is negative, the resistance decreases with increasing
temperature, and the device is called a negative
temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor.

ADVANTAGES OF USING A THERMISTOR

Thermistors have some benefits over other kinds of

temperature sensors such as analog output chips
(LM35/TMP36 ) or digital temperature sensor chips
(DS18B20) or thermocouples.
First off, they are much much cheaper than all
the above! A bare 5% thermistor is only 10
cents in bulk.
They are also much easier to waterproof since
its just a resistor.
They work at any voltage (digital sensors
require 3 or 5V logic).
Compared to a thermocouple, they don't
require an amplifier to read the minute
voltages - you can use any microcontroller to
read a thermistor.
They can also be incredibly accurate for the
price. For example, the 10K 1% thermistor in the
shop is good for measuring with 0.25C
accuracy! (Assuming you have an accurate
enough analog converter)
They are difficult to break or damage - they
are much simpler and more reliable

APPLICATIONS

PTC Thermistor

As heater in automotive industry to provide additional

heat inside cabin with diesel engine or to heat diesel in cold
climatic conditions before engine injection.

In temperature compensated synthesizer voltage

controlled oscillators.[7]

In lithium battery protection circuits.[8]

In an electrically actuated Wax motor to provide the heat
necessary to expand the wax.

A C831 PTC thermistor

NTC Thermistor

As resistance thermometers in low-temperature

measurements of the order of 10 K.
As sensors in automotive applications to monitor
things like coolant or oil temperature inside the engine,
and provide data to the ECU and to the dashboard.
To monitor the temperature of an incubator.
Thermistors are also commonly used in modern digital
thermostats and to monitor the temperature of
battery packs while charging.

 Thermistors are often used in the hot ends of 3D printers;

they monitor the heat produced and allow the printer's
control circuitry to keep a constant temperature for
melting the plastic filament.
In the Food Handling and Processing industry,
especially for food storage systems and food preparation.
Maintaining the correct temperature is critical to
prevent food borne illness.

SOME NTC
THERMISTORS

CONDUCTION MODEL

NTC
Many NTC thermistors are made from a pressed disc, rod,
plate, bead or cast chip of semiconducting material such
as sintered metal oxides.

They work because raising the temperature of a

semiconductor increases the number of active charge
carriers - it promotes them into the conduction band. The
more charge carriers that are available, the more current a
material can conduct. In certain materials like ferric oxide
(Fe2O3) with titanium (Ti) doping an n-type semiconductor is
formed and the charge carriers are electrons.
In materials such as nickel oxide (NiO) with lithium (Li)
doping a p-type semiconductor is created where holes are the
charge carriers.[4]

PTC
Most PTC thermistors are made from doped
polycrystalline ceramic (containing barium titanate (BaTiO3)
and other compounds) which have the property that that their
resistance rises suddenly at a certain critical temperature.
Barium titanate is ferroelectric and its dielectric
constant varies with temperature.

Below the Curie point temperature, the high dielectric

constant prevents the formation of potential barriers
between the crystal grains, leading to a low resistance. In this
region the device has a small negative temperature
coefficient.
At the Curie point temperature, the dielectric constant
drops sufficiently to allow the formation of potential barriers
at the grain boundaries, and the resistance increases
sharply with temperature.

Working
NTC Thermistor

In NTC thermistor, when the temperature increases,

resistance decreases. Conversely, when temperature
decreases, resistance increases. Thus this type of thermistor
is used when we want to increase the current in the circuit
as the temperature is increased. example: fire alarm.
PTC Themistor

In PTC thermistor when the temperature increases above

some threshold value, resistance increases drastically.
This type of thermistor is required when we want to stop the
flow current when temperature is high.
Example: Automatic cutoff system in electric geysers.

APPARATUS REQUIRED

1. A breadboard
2. A thermistor(NTC)
3. Two resistors
4. A transistor
5. An LED
6. Few connecting wires

PROCEDURE
1.

OBSERVATION
The connections are made such that one leg of the
thermistor is connected to the base of the transistor
and its other leg is connected to Vcc(positive/high
voltage). The emitter of the transistor
and one end of the base resistor are grounded
(negative/low voltage).
When the surface of the thermistor is exposed to
heat, the LED starts glowing. The LED turns OFF the
moment the temperature of the thermistor falls
below the threshold value.

The circuit is designed such that the resistance of the

thermistor is inversely proportional to the base voltage.
d

OBSERVATION

The thermistor used is a negative temperature coefficient

(NTC) resistor.
The reason LED glows is that
when the thermistor is heated, its
resistance decreases due to which the base voltage
increases and point comes when the base-emitter
junction is forward biased.
As a result the transistor
turns on and an output current ows from its collector to
the emitter, making the LED glow.

CONCLUSION

1. The current flowing in the circuit is directly

proportional to the temperature of the surrounding
because we have used an NTC thermistor in the
circuit where the resistance of thermistor is inversely
proportional to the surrounding temperature in
which the thermistor is kept.

2. Increase in base voltage results in the glow of LED.

To increase the base voltage we need to use a
variable resistor which can forward bias the baseemitter junction of the transistor to initiate the flow
of collector current which makes LED glow. Thus we
use NTC thermistor to provide variable resistance.

PRECAUTIONS
1. All the circuitry connections should be tight.
2. While heating the thermistor with a matchstick or a
lighter make sure that it is not too close to the sensor.
3. Heating of the sensor should not take place for a long
time.

REFERENCE
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermistor

2.Google images
3.https://in.answers.yahoo.com/

INTRODUCTIO
N

EXPERIMENT