COVERSTORY

6 sensor repor t 3-2007

eraeus Sensor Technology is one of the world's most

renowned manufacturers of platinum temperature

sensors. Through active co-operation with customers

and users, projects progress through to mass production

quantities counted in the millions. The foundation is the lar-

ge scale production of sensors in thin-film technology under

the watchful eye of a refined quality assurance system. A de-

pendable process with a high level of automation is a prere-

quisite.

One of the company guidelines is also the contribution to the

success of customised developments by using the company's

own expertise for optimisation. Enquiries are not just tested

for feasibility, but after comprehensive realisation tests they

are subjected to the full expertise of in-house development

and production specialists to give cost optimised, customer-

specific temperature sensors. Also later – during the pro-

duction phase and after customer consultation – current de-

velopments are integrated into running projects. In this way

the products are continually maintained at the state of the

art.

The primary factor in this respect is that with the expertise

from Heraeus Sensor Technology the most important parame-

ters can be adapted to special customer applications. Taking

into account the limits on the materials, these include the di-

mensions, nominal resistances, tolerances and the tempera-

ture coefficients.

LIQUID NITROGEN OR WHITE HEAT. Platinum tempera-

ture sensors in thin-film technology from Heraeus Sensor

Technology cover measurement ranges from cryogenic ( -196

°C to +150 °C) and medium (< +650 °C) through to high (<

+1000 °C) application temperatures. Depending on the type

of construction, various resistance values (at 0 °C) are availa-

ble as standard: 100, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 10,000 ohms. For

automatic placement various SMD styles can be recommen-

ded, whereby the smallest version (0603V) takes up an area

of only 1.7x0.9 mmÇ and about half a millimetre in height.

The standard version is an oblong chip in various geometries.

Aluminium oxide ceramic is used as the carrier material. In

contrast to the SMD style, contacting here usually takes pace

at one end of the component.

After the assembly, platinum temperature sensors in thin-

film technology prove to be extremely rugged. Shock tests at

100 g over 8 ms (half sine wave) and vibration stressing with

up to 40 g (10 Hz to 2 kHz) are passed with no problem.

Where the respective application demands it, the electrical re-

Gold for Platinum

Sensors

Temperature sensors made to measure

Fig. 1: In millions of ovens and hot-plates platinum temperature sensors

in thin-film technology today control the most varied thermal processes

from simmering to catalytic cleaning: Typical results from close co-ope-

ration with Heraeus Sensor Technology.

Fig. 2: Circulation pumps of thermal solar collectors are controlled with

the signals of platinum temperature sensors (Pt1000) in thin-film tech-

nology. Customised products manufactured on a large scale are the

speciality of Heraeus Sensor Technology.

In the choice of temperature sensors platinum temperature sensors are right at the top on the vir-

tual winner's podium of the world's best players. The well-founded reasons here are the mass de-

ployment in motor vehicles, household appliances, heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC), in

electronics or for precision applications in medicine, production or process technology. Reliability,

a long service life, accuracy and simple signal processing are the key wor ds here.