1353 results about "Thermal sensors" patented technology

A system and method for measuring thermal distributions of an electronic device during operation is disclosed. The system includes an electronic device, a heat sink adjacent to the electronic device and an electrical-insulating layer disposed on the electronic device so as to separate the electronic device and the heat sink. The system further includes a plurality of thermal sensors located on the electrical-insulating layer, each of the plurality of thermal sensors in a different location. The plurality of thermal sensors is located within one or more thin film circuit layers disposed adjacent to the electrical insulating layer. The system further includes a module for receiving thermal information from the plurality of thermal sensors during operation of the electronic device. The system further includes a processor coupled to the module for generating a thermal distribution of the electronic device based on the thermal information received from the plurality of thermal sensors.

An emergency notifying apparatus of a moving object, having: image pick-up devices for picking up a part of the moving object and surroundings thereof, a video recording apparatus for recording signals related to the images taken by the image pick-up devices according to an output from at least one of shock sensors for detecting a shock applied to the moving object, a thermal sensor for detecting a heat or a temperature in a given portion of the moving object, and a manual switch, and a control unit for generating a signal for transmitting the image signals recorded in the recording apparatus to a given station via a radio communication device.

A high-powered lighting assembly includes an easily sealed continuous thermal barrier and a solid-state actively controlled closed-loop refrigeration system to maximize operational efficiencies and increase unit life. The thermal barrier prevents thermal back-flow from a heat sink plate or a housing to a lighting array while insulating a control module and a thermal sensor with improved sealing geometry. The refrigeration system is optimally positioned to controllably pump heat from the lighting array to the heat sink plate.

The present invention relates to devices and methods for measuring tissue temperature during thermal treatment of a body. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thermal probe comprising a plurality of thermal sensors operable to measure tissue temperatures during thermal treatments such as cryosurgery. Embodiments of the invention enable simultaneous measurements, using a single probe, of temperatures at a plurality of positions within body tissues. A preferred embodiment enables movement of sensors with respect to tissues while the probe is immobilized by being embedded in frozen tissue.

A sensing probe is described. The sensing probe includes a probe housing having a probe tip. A thermal sensor in the housing is also included. The thermal sensor has a sensing end and a connector end, where the sensing end is thermally coupled to the probe tip. Also included are at least two leads. The leads transfer electrical signals that are used to determine temperature and conductivity. Also included is a thermal well. The thermal well includes a hollow housing of a thermally conductive material. The housing has an outer surface and an inner surface. The inner surface is a predetermined shape so as to form a mating relationship with a sensing probe. The mating thermally couples the inner surface with a sensing probe. In some embodiments, the thermal well is located on a disposable portion and the sensing probe on a reusable portion.

An apparatus and a method of using the apparatus wherein a radiation emitter is positioned adjacent a sensor apparatus within a process chamber in a laser sinter system that emits radiation to the sensor apparatus and a calibration apparatus receives readings from the sensor apparatus to compare temperature sensings received from the sensor apparatus with set emission signals from the radiation emitter to adjust the temperature sensings to calibrate the sensor apparatus during the forming of a three-dimensional article. The calibration is done repeatedly during the build process of the three-dimensional article.

An apparatus for managing the temperature of an integrated circuit having a multiple core microprocessor is described. Specifically, thermal sensors are placed at potential hot spots throughout each microprocessor core. A thermal management unit monitors the thermal sensors. If a thermal sensor identifies a hot spot, the thermal management unit adjusts the operating frequency and voltage of that microprocessor core accordingly.

This invention is an improved method and device for treating varicose veins 200 or the greater saphenous vein 202. The method comprises the use of infrared laser radiation in the region of 1.2 to 2.2 um in a manner from inside the vessel 200 or 202 such that the endothelial cells of the vessel wall 704 are damaged and collagen fibers in the vessel wall 704 are heated to the point where they permanently contract, the vessel 200 or 202 is occluded and ultimately resorbed. The device includes a laser 102 delivered via a fiber optic catheter 300 that may have frosted or diffusing fiber tips 308, or that may be provided with a protective spacer. A motorized pull back device 104 may be used, and a thermal sensor 600 may be used to help control the power required to maintain the proper treatment temperature.

Electromagnetic radiation detecting and sensing systems using carbon nanotube fabrics and methods of making the same are provided. In certain embodiments of the invention, an electromagnetic radiation detector includes a substrate, a nanotube fabric disposed on the substrate, the nanotube fabric comprising a non-woven network of nanotubes, and first and second conductive terminals, each in electrical communication with the nanotube fabric, the first and second conductive terminals disposed in space relation to one another. Nanotube fabrics may be tuned to be sensitive to a predetermined range of electromagnetic radiation such that exposure to the electromagnetic radiation induces a change in impedance between the first and second conductive terminals. The detectors include microbolometers, themistors and resistive thermal sensors, each constructed with nanotube fabric. Nanotube fabric detector arrays may be formed for broad-range electromagnetic radiation detecting. Methods for making nanotube fabric detectors, arrays, microbolometers, thermistors and resistive thermal sensors are each described.

One embodiment of the invention is directed to methods and apparatus for determining a variation of a calibration parameter of a pixel of the thermal sensor during operation of the imaging apparatus, after an initial calibration procedure. Another embodiment of the invention is directed to methods and apparatus for calculating a gain calibration parameter using first and second ambient temperature values and respective first and second resistance values for a pixel of a sensor. A further embodiment of the invention is directed to calculating an offset calibration parameter for at least one pixel using a gain of the at least one pixel between first and second times and an ambient temperature at a third time, wherein the pixel is exposed to both scene and ambient radiation at the third time.

Systems and methods for sensing temperatures of objects using mobile devices and more particularly for sensing the temperature of children using smart cellular telephones and / or cameras with infrared thermal sensors. The sensed temperatures can be output via user interfaces of the mobile devices. However, this abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit the claims.

An enclosure for protecting at least a portion of a printed circuit board that includes a top and bottom cover each having an insulating layer between an outer conductive layer and an inner conductive layer. Each outer conductive layer and each inner conductive layer are electrically connected to a voltage source to form tamper detection circuits. The enclosure further includes cover switches to detect attempts to lift or remove the covers and a thermal sensor / switch or the like for indicating that a temperature inside the enclosure has moved past a predetermined level due to a tamper attempt. A detection circuit generates and transmits a signal to cause sensitive information contained in one or more electronic components provided on the circuit board to be erased when a tamper attempt is detected.

A catheter carries a plurality of electrodes, each with multiple thermal sensors attached and is used to position the electrodes proximal biological tissue. A processor responsive to each of the thermal sensors determines the temperature at the thermal-sensor / electrode junction. A display provides a graphic representation of the temperatures of the thermal-sensor / electrode junctions. An exemplary representation is a bar graph having the temperature of one thermal sensor at one end and the temperature of another thermal sensor at the other end. The length of the bar graph combined with the position of the bar graph relative to a temperature range region provides an indication of the position of the thermal-sensor / electrode junctions relative to the biological tissue. The processor also monitors the spread between the sensor temperatures and compares it to a threshold value. Base on the result of the comparison, the processor controls the power applied to the electrode.

The present invention provides a protection circuit disposed in a lithium-ion cell for protection of the lithium-ion cell. The protection circuit includes a first protection module, a second protection module, an integrated circuit module, a thermal sensor or thermocouple, a switch, a fuse and / or a resistor.

A system for providing irrigation fluid during ablation of tissue includes a catheter, an electrode assembly, at least one thermal sensor adapted to be connected to the catheter, and a control system. The electrode assembly is adapted to be connected to an ablation generator. The thermal sensor is adapted to be operatively connected to an electronic control unit (ECU). The ECU receives as an input temperature measurement data from the thermal sensor; determines a power delivery rate value for the ablation generator responsive to the temperature measurement data; and outputs the power delivery rate value. The control system also delivers irrigation fluid to the irrigated catheter at a first flow rate in a first time period and at a second flow rate in a second time period that is temporally after the first time period. The second flow rate is at least half of the first flow rate.

A chip (1) includes: a resource manager (2); various kinds of functional blocks (3-6); a thermal sensor (13); and a performance counter (15). The resource manager manages tasks that the functional blocks execute, and determines a task progress (38) for each task from an activated ratio (α) provided from the performance counter and a deadline (39) contained in task information (33) and decides priority of each task. When the temperature detected by the thermal sensor during execution of a task is not less than a threshold (T_max), the resource manager reads out a power consumption budget (P_max) from a memory (9) which has been set to make the temperature below the threshold, and stops the clock fed to the functional block executing a task having a lower priority or lowers the frequency of the clock until a chip power consumption value (p_sum) becomes smaller than the power consumption budget.

A thermal monitoring system includes: one or more thermal sensors configured to monitor the temperature of one or more portions of a fracking pump and generate one or more thermal indication signals; a processing system configured to receive the one or more thermal indication signals and associate the one or more thermal indication signals with one or more operating temperatures of the one or more portions of the fracking pump; and an indication system configured to provide a thermal condition indicator based, at least in part, upon the one or more operating temperatures of the one or more portions of the fracking pump.

Imaging system and method, the system including a main detection unit, an auxiliary detection unit, an image processor, and a controller. The main detection unit includes a light source that emits light pulses and a gated image sensor that receives reflections of the light pulses reflected from a selected depth of field in the environment and converts the reflections into a reflection-based image. The auxiliary detection unit includes a thermal sensor that detects infrared radiation emitted from the environment and generates an emission-based image. The image processor processes and detects at least one region of interest in the acquired reflection-based image and / or acquired emission-based image. The controller adaptively controls at least one detection characteristic of a detection unit based on information obtained from the other detection unit. The image processor detects at least one object of interest in the acquired reflection-based image and / or acquired emission-based image.

The invention discloses a preparation method of a novel three-dimensional nitrogen doped graphene composite material system. The method comprises the following steps: 1, uniformly dispersing graphene oxide in a solvent at room temperature, adding a selected material and a nitrogen-containing compound, and uniformly mixing to form a mixed solution; 2, reacting the mixed solution at a temperature from room temperature to 150DEG C for 0-8h; and 3, cooling the above obtained product to room temperature, centrifuging, collecting the obtained product, washing, and drying to obtain the nitrogen doped graphene composite material. The three-dimensional nitrogen doped graphene composite material system with the nitrogen content of 8-19% can be efficiently and controllably prepared through the method, and the nitrogen content of the system can be controlled by changing the kind and the amount of the added nitrogen-containing compound, the reaction temperature and the reaction time; and the method is simple, is easy to enforce, allows the yield to be greater than 98.9%, and can be widely used in fields of water treatment, biomedicines, energy generation, conversion and storage devices, electrostatic prevention, heat management, heat conduction and dissipation, sensors, electromagnetic shielding, wave absorption and catalysis.

An adaptive temperature dependent clock feedback control system and method for adaptively varying a frequency of a clock signal to a circuit such that the circuit may operate at a maximum safe operating clock frequency based on a circuit junction temperature. The clock control system includes a thermal sensor and a temperature dependent dynamic overclock generator circuit. The thermal sensor detects a junction temperature corresponding to at least a portion of the circuit on a semiconductor die. The temperature dependent dynamic overclock generator circuit varies the clock signal based on the semiconductor die junction temperature, such that the clock signal operates at the highest possible operating frequency associated with the detected junction temperature. The frequency of the clock signal is increased from a first frequency to at least a second frequency and a third frequency if the junction temperature is below a lower junction temperature threshold.

In one form a capacitive sensor is disclosed for immersion into a fluid, the capacitive sensor having a housing and first and second electrodes with the first electrode being disposed at least partially within the housing and electrically connected to a circuit, the second electrode being electrically connected to the circuit via an electrical connection and physically separated from the housing containing at least a portion of the first electrode so that at least a portion of the electrical connection or second electrode is located above or outside of the fluid to reduce the risk that minerals will form between the electrodes. In another form the electrodes are separated into their own cavities of the sensor housing via a bridging member which separates the electrodes to help reduce the risk of mineral buildup occurring between the electrodes. In other forms, capacitors, capacitive sensors, pump controls and systems utilizing these features are disclosed along with methods and apparatus relating to same. In yet other forms additional sensors such as current sensors, thermal sensors, speed sensors, torque sensors and Hall Effect sensors are disclosed for use alone or in combination with said capacitive sensor for detecting fluid level and / or controlling pumps. In still other forms, apparatus and methods relating to self cleaning pumps are disclosed.

A thermal control system (11) for a light source (46) of a vision system (10) includes a cooling assembly (61) that has a cooling device (62) and is thermally coupled to the light source (46). A thermal sensor (60) is thermally coupled to the light source (46) and generates a light source temperature signal. A control circuit (50) is coupled to the cooling assembly (61) and to the thermal sensor (60) and operates the cooling device (62) when the light source temperature signal is above a minimum temperature limit.

An electrode assembly adapted to be coupled with a handpiece and powered to treat skin and underlying tissues. A sensor is coupled to the energy delivery device. The sensor may comprise, for example, a force sensor or a thermal sensor.

A temperature-based cooling device controller is implemented in an integrated circuit such as a microprocessor. The temperature-based cooling device controller includes a register to store a threshold temperature value, a thermal sensor, and clock adjustment logic to activate a cooling device in response to the thermal sensor indicating that the threshold temperature value has been exceeded. In a microprocessor implementation, the microprocessor contains a plurality of thermal sensors each placed in one of a plurality of different locations across the integrated circuit and an averaging mechanism to calculate an average temperature from the plurality of thermal sensors. Threshold adjustment logic increases the threshold temperature value to a new threshold temperature value in response to the thermal sensor indicating that the threshold temperature value has been exceeded. Threshold adjustment logic further lowers the new threshold temperature to detect decreases in temperature.

Techniques and apparatus for controlling the distribution of power (e.g., current) and the temperature to individually accessible compartments enclosing subsystems of a personal communication structure (PCS) is described. The PCS includes a power distribution and temperature controller subsystem, including thermal sensors adapted to generate and transmit temperature measurement data to the temperature controller, which controls fans / blowers. The power distribution subsystem senses and controls the current delivered to the individually accessible compartments.

This invention is an improved method and device for treating varicose veins 200 or the greater saphenous vein 202. The method comprises the use of infrared laser radiation in the region of 1.2 to 2.2 um in a manner from inside the vessel 200 or 202 such that the endothelial cells of the vessel wall 704 are damaged and collagen fibers in the vessel wall 704 are heated to the point where they permanently contract, the vessel 200 or 202 is occluded and ultimately resorbed. The device includes a laser 102 delivered via a fiber optic catheter 300 that may have frosted or diffusing fiber tips 308, or that may be provided with a protective spacer. A motorized pull back device 104 may be used, and a thermal sensor 600 may be used to help control the power required to maintain the proper treatment temperature.

Ablation electrode assemblies include an inner core member and an outer shell surrounding the inner core member. The inner core member and the outer shell define a space or separation region therebetween. The inner core member is constructed from a thermally insulative material having a reduced thermal conductivity. In an embodiment, the space is a sealed or evacuated region. In other embodiments, irrigation fluid flows within the space. The ablation electrode assembly further includes at least one thermal sensor in some embodiments. Methods for providing irrigation fluid during cardiac ablation of targeted tissue are disclosed that include calculating the energy delivered to irrigation fluid as it flows within the ablation electrode assembly through temperature measurement of the irrigation fluid. Pulsatile flow of irrigation fluid can be utilized in some embodiments of the disclosure.

According to one aspect, a portable electronic device having a heat generating component, a thermal sensor, an energy storage device for powering the portable electronic device, a thermal element thermally coupled to the heat generating component, the energy storage device, and the thermal sensor. The thermal element is sized and shaped so that heat generated by the heat generating component flows through the thermal element towards the thermal sensor and interacts with the energy storage device. The thermal sensor is used to monitor a thermal profile for the thermal element, and the monitored thermal profile is compared with an expected thermal profile to determine if the integrity of the portable electronic device has been compromised.