Document Type: Tutorial NI Supported: Yes Publish Date: Sep 29, 2011

Temperature Sensors Types of Temperature Sensors

Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a sample of matter expressed in units of degrees on a standard scale. You can measure temperature in many different ways that vary in equipment cost and accuracy. The most common types of sensors are thermocouples, RTDs, and thermistors. Thermocouple

Figure 1. Thermocouples are inexpensive and can operate over a wide range of temperatures. Thermocouples are the most commonly used temperature sensors because they are relatively inexpensive yet accurate sensors that can operate over a wide range of temperatures. A thermocouple is created when two dissimilar metals touch and the contact point produces a small open-circuit voltage as a function of temperature. You can use this thermoelectric voltage, known as Seebeck voltage, to calculate temperature. For small changes in temperature, the voltage is approximately linear. You can choose from different types of thermocouples designated by capital letters that indicate their compositions according to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) conventions. The most common types of thermocouples include B, E, K, N, R, S, and T. For more information on thermocouples, read the Thermocouple How-To Guide. RTD

Figure 2. RTDs are made of metal coils and can measure temperatures up to 850 C. A platinum RTD is a device made of coils or films of metal (usually platinum). When heated, the resistance of the metal increases; when cooled, the resistance decreases. Passing current through an RTD generates a voltage across the RTD. By measuring this voltage, you can determine its resistance and, thus, its temperature. The relationship between resistance and temperature is relatively linear. Typically, RTDs have a resistance of 100 at 0 C and can measure temperatures up to 850 C. For more information on RTDs, read the RTD How-To Guide. Thermistor

Figure 3. Passing current through a thermistor generates a voltage proportional to temperature. A thermistor is a piece of semiconductor made from metal oxides that are pressed into a small bead, disk, wafer, or other shape and sintered at high temperatures. Lastly, they are coated with epoxy or glass. As with RTDs, you can pass a current through a thermistor to read the voltage across the thermistor and determine its temperature. However, unlike RTDs, thermistors have a higher resistance (2,000 to 10,000 ) and a much higher sensitivity (~200 /C), allowing them to achieve higher sensitivity within a limited temperature range (up to 300 C). For information on thermistors, read the Thermistor How-To Guide.

Designing the Right Measurement System for Temperature Sensors

Signal conditioning is required to make accurate and reliable temperature measurements. In designing the right measurement system for your temperature sensor, you should consider amplification, isolation, filtering, excitation, accuracy, resolution, and cold-junction compensation (CJC). Amplification Output signals from temperature sensors are typically in the millivolt range, so you should amplify the signal and take care to prevent noise in your measurement system. Choose a gain that optimizes the input limits of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in your hardware. To improve the noise performance of your system, you can amplify the low-level voltages near the signal source or measurement point.

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Isolation Thermocouples being mounted on or soldered directly to a conductive material, such as steel or water, introduce another source of noise. This configuration makes thermocouples particularly susceptible to common-mode voltage and ground loops. Isolation helps to prevent ground loops and can dramatically improve the rejection of common-mode voltage. With conductive material that has a large common-mode voltage, isolation is required because nonisolated amplifiers cannot measure signals with large common-mode voltages. Learn more about high-voltage and isolated measurements. Filtering Lowpass filters are commonly used to effectively eliminate high-frequency noise in temperature measurements. For example, lowpass filters are useful for removing the 60 Hz power line noise that is prevalent in many laboratory and plant settings. Excitation Because RTDs and thermistors are resistive devices, you must supply them with an excitation current and then read the voltage across their terminals. If extra heat cannot be dissipated, heating caused by the excitation current can raise the temperature of the sensing element above that of the ambient temperature. Self-heating actually changes the resistance of the RTD or thermistor, causing error in the measurement. You can minimize the effects of self-heating by supplying lower excitation current. Accuracy and Resolution In selecting the right sensor and data acquisition hardware, you must know the accuracy and resolution requirements for your application. Though filtering and amplification can dramatically improve the accuracy of thermocouple measurements, RTDs and thermistors are known to yield more accurate readings. In addition to sensor considerations, you should match the required accuracy and resolution for your application to the data acquisition and signal conditioning hardware that you select. Cold-Junction Compensation (CJC) CJC is a technology required for accurate thermocouple measurements. A voltage is generated at the connection between the thermocouple and terminal of your data acquisition device. CJC improves your measurement accuracy by providing the temperature at this junction and applying the appropriate correction. Understanding how CJC works is important because the error introduced by your CJC sensor compounds any error already in your measurement. When calculating the system accuracy , remember that this error can be significant and should be considered. Learn more about CJC.

NI Measurement Systems for Temperature Sensors

Temperature is one of the most common measurement types, so National Instruments provides many options for measuring temperature sensors. From 1 to 1,000+ channels, National Instruments has the right platform for your temperature measurement system. NI CompactDAQ

Figure 4. NI CompactDAQ is recommended for temperature measurements that require isolation and high resolution. NI CompactDAQ provides a portable and rugged solution that is recommended for temperature measurements requiring isolation and high resolution. You can choose from several different modules with up to 250 Vrms of channel-to-channel isolation and 24-bit resolution. The NI CompactDAQ platform offers up to 16 temperature channels per module and 128 channels per chassis. Learn more about NI CompactDAQ. Shop NI CompactDAQ for temperature measurements . PXI

Figure 5. The PXI platform is recommended for the most accurate temperature measurements. The PXI platform is recommended for highly accurate temperature measurements. The PXI Express 32-channel thermocouple module offers measurement accuracy better than 0.3 C with 24-bit resolution and 250 V of bank isolation. A PXI digital multimeter (DMM) offers accuracy up to 0.3 C for thermocouples, 0.14 C for RTDs, and 0.08 C for thermistors. Both of these solution can easily scale to thousands of channels for high-channel-count data acquisition systems. See the specs and pricing for the NI SC Express thermocouple module. Learn about temperature measurements with a DMM and switch. SCXI

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Figure 6. NI recommends the SCXI platform for a cost-effective solution for isolated temperature measurements. NI recommends the SCXI platform for a cost-effective solution for isolated temperature measurements. SCXI provides up to 300 V of channel-to-channel isolation for thermocouple measurements with large common-mode voltage. The SCXI platform offers up to 32 temperature channels per module and 384 channels per chassis. Learn more about SCXI. Shop SCXI for temperature measurements. NI USB-TC01

Figure 7. The NI USB-TC01 connects your PC to a single thermocouple. The USB-TC01 is a low-cost, portable solution for measuring a single thermocouple. Built-in NI InstantDAQ software for viewing and logging data is automatically loaded once you connect the device, so setup time is minimal. The USB-TC01 is also compatible with NI LabVIEW and NI-DAQmx driver software for further customization. Learn more about the NI USB-TC01. Return to the NI solutions page for more information on different methods for measuring temperature.

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