From near absolute to over one thousand degrees – Lake Shore have a sensor to suit
With the UK’s record breaking hot weather continuing, we thought you might like to know that Lake Shore Cryotronics offer four types of sensor for temperature measurement:
Diodes
A diode temperature sensor is the general name for a class of semiconductor temperature sensors. They are based on the temperature dependence of the forward voltage drop across a p-n junction. The voltage change with temperature depends on the material. The most common is Silicon, but Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Gallium Aluminium Arsenide (GaAlAs) are also used.
Resistors
These sensors are based on the change of resistance with temperature, and can be classified as positive temperature coefficient (PTC) or negative temperature coefficient (NTC). Platinum RTDs are the best example of PTC resistance sensors.
Capacitors
Capacitors are also used for low temperatures, but usually not for temperature measurement. Capacitance temperature sensors have the advantage of being insensitive to magnetic fields, but they commonly experience calibration shifts after thermal cycling.
Thermocouples
Thermocouples are only useful where differential temperature measurements or low mass are the main consideration. They must be calibrated in-situ as the entire length of the wire contributes to the output voltage if it traverses a temperature gradient.
Each type sensor has its own particular advantages in terms of temperature range and response, as well as design features and drawbacks, so Elliot Scientific recommends contacting us to discuss your application and its requirements.
Lake Shore also do some nice instruments to go with their sensors!
Lake Shore’s temperature sensor data is now online
Lake Shore is now offering all their temperature sensor information in one convenient online page. The new Sensors’ page contains links to:
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Over the coming months, Lake Shore will migrate away from shipping calibration data CDs with calibrated sensors and will instead only offer this data via a portal accessible from the new page.
Data is currently available online for sensors shipped since the beginning of 2016, so if an existing CD is lost or damaged, the calibration data can be quickly downloaded providing you have the serial number of the relevant sensor on hand. Alternatively, contact Lake Shore Service for archived curves.
Image of Saturn by Cassini courtesy of NASA
Lake Shore space-qualified sensors were on the hugely successful Cassini Huygens mission to Saturn that ended earlier this month.
Nearly twenty years of gathering temperature information in an extreme environment is a good advert for their sensors, and Elliot Scientific often supplies them to the aerospace industry and space scientists in the UK and Ireland.
Please contact us for more information.
Lake Shore’s Cryogenic Temperature Sensors now on elliotscientific.com
Lake Shore offers four types of sensor for cryogenic temperature measurement based on voltage (diodes) or resistance. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and these can be easily seen at-a-glance via our new Cryogenic Temperature Sensors page.
For example: Of the three most common NTC resistor materials, sputter-deposited zirconium oxy-nitride aka Cernox™ – the others being Germanium and Ruthenium Oxide (Rox™) – is the most versatile. Cernox™ thin film resistors are only manufactured by Lake Shore Cryotronics, and incorporated into robust sensor packages.
Cernox™ works over a broad temperature range, does not follow a standard curve, has sensitivity below 1 K, and is highly resistant to ionising radiation and magnetic field-induced errors. These features can be instantly seen on the page via our colourful graphics:
| ♨ | 0.1 to 420 | ⌒ | ✘ | ❆ | ✔ | ☢ | ✔ | ⋐ | ★★★ (1 K +) |
In all, nine different temperature sensor materials are detailed and an informative datasheet is available to download. However, Elliot Scientific still recommends contacting us for expert advice on sensor choice for your application.
Next week we are at Photon16: The University of Leeds
Next week Elliot Scientific will be exhibiting at Photon16, the largest optics and photonics conference in the UK and the eighth in the series of these biennial events.
This year Photon16 will be held at the University of Leeds, and includes a Women in Optics workshop, an Industry and Technology Programme (ITP) and dozens of speakers at various conferences taking place at the event.
Elliot Scientific is located on Table 34 from September 6th and 7th throughout the exhibition days of the conference.
Next week: Photon 14 at Imperial College
Next week Elliot Scientific will be exhibiting at Photon 14, the largest optics and photonics conference in the UK and the seventh in the series of these biennial events.
This year Photon14 will be held at Imperial College London, and includes Optics and Photonics 2014 and QEP-21 conferences.
Photo courtesy of Amanda Slater
Topics covered at the conference will include:
- Active and adaptive optics
- Advances in imaging and displays
- Advances in lasers
- Advances in THz technology
- Biophotonics
- Computational photonics
- Fibre optic sensors
- Fibre optics and waveguides
- Lighting design
- Manufacturing of optics
- Metamaterials
- Nanophotonics and plasmonics
- Nonlinear photonics
- Optical and quantum metrology
- Optical diagnostic in engineering
- Optical environmental sensing
- Optical vortices, polarization, coherence and non-Gaussian beams
- Photonic energy harvesting
- Photonic systems
- Quantum coherent control
- Quantum dots, nanocrystals, and low dimensional materials
- Quantum information
- Quantum optics
- Silicon and carbon photonics
- Structured optical materials and biomimetics
- Trapping and manipulation
- Ultrafast and attosecond optics
Elliot Scientific can be found on Stand 10 from September 1st to 4th.
Photon 14: 1st – 4th September, Imperial College, London
New Probe Stations catalogue from Lake Shore now in stock
Lake Shore has released a new printed catalogue covering their expanded range of cryogenic/cryogen-free and vacuum micro-manipulated Probe Stations for testing the electronic and magneto-transport properties of chips, wafers, and packaged devices.
The 10 systems covered feature variable temperature operation, from 1.6 K to 675 K depending on model, and can accommodate up 4″ wafers with up to 6 probes, again depending on model chosen.
Probes are available for use with signals ranging from DC to 67 GHz, and a combination of both low and high frequency probes can be supplied with a single system.
Additionally, these systems can be configured with horizontal or vertical field superconducting magnets, high-resolution microscopes, and CCD cameras for precision positioning of the probe tips on the wafer or device under test.
Full specifications can be found in the downloadable catalogue, or contact us for more information.
Elliot Scientific 