832 results about "Thermopile" patented technology

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA polymerase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA polymerase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA polymerase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA polymerase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA poly-merase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

A hand-held mobile communication device, such as smart telephone, incorporating sensors and signal conditioning modules for measuring signals from external sources of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the low, radio, ultraviolet, and infrared spectral ranges. These include the detector for receiving and monitoring electromagnetic fields originating from various external sources of radiation that pose potential health hazards or may interfere with various electronic devices. The mobile phone equipped with such sensors could alternate between communication and monitoring functions. Other integrated EMR sensors are a photodiode for the ultraviolet detection to monitor the user's sun exposure and a thermopile for non-contact measurement of temperature of humans or inanimate objects. This infrared sensor in combination with a photographic digital camera and a pattern recognition signal processing allows measuring temperatures at specific locations and from optimal distances to the surface of the object to enhance accuracy of non-contact temperature measurements.

A thin sensor for heat flux and temperature, designed for adhesive attachment to a surface, is manufactured on a flexible insulated metallic substrate. The sensor exhibits a combination of high sensitivity for heat flux and low resistance to the flow of heat. These characteristics enable it to measure heat flux at surface boundaries with improved accuracy over conventional heat flux transducers because the temperature drop produced by the sensor is very small. The response by the sensor to radiation, convection and conduction are equal. As such, the sensor can be calibrated in one mode of heat transfer and used for measurement in other modes. The high sensitivity of the sensor makes it ideal for measuring heat flow through insulating materials, and well adapted to instrumenting heat flow in buildings, detecting fires at an early stage, or remotely measuring the temperature of string and web products in industrial processing.

The present invention relates to a novel method for analyzing nucleic acid sequences based on real-time detection of DNA polymerase-catalyzed incorporation of each of the four nucleotide bases, supplied individually and serially in a microfluidic system, to a reaction cell containing a template system comprising a DNA fragment of unknown sequence and an oligonucleotide primer. Incorporation of a nucleotide base into the template system can be detected by any of a variety of methods including but not limited to fluorescence and chemiluminescence detection. Alternatively, microcalorimetic detection of the heat generated by the incorporation of a nucleotide into the extending template system using thermopile, thermistor and refractive index measurements can be used to detect extension reactions.

A system, a method, a device and a computer program are provided for detecting and monitoring medium flow. The device comprises a flow sensor (350) that includes a thermopile (352), wherein the thermopile (352) may include a first thermocouple and a second thermocouple. The device can further comprise a microcontroller (340) that can be configured to generate a reference baseline and can further be configured to compare an output of the mass airflow sensor to the reference baseline (503). The heater element may comprise a heater resistor.

Wearable devices capable of measuring a core body temperature and other vital signs of a user in a range of situations are described herein. The wearable device is arranged to be retained within the ear canal of the ear, in order to prevent the wearable device from inadvertently removing itself from the ear. Providing an infrared thermopile at the innermost end of the ear insert ensures that the infrared thermopile is provided as close as possible to the tympanic membrane which will be used to provide an indication of the core body temperature.

An infrared ear thermometer includes a detector head housing, a heat sink, a recess formed in the heat sink, a thermopile sensor mounted within the recess, a thermistor, and temperature determination circuitry. The recess defines an aperture that limits the field of view of the thermopile sensor. The thermal capacities and conductivities of the heat sink and the thermopile sensor are selected so that the output signal of the thermopile sensor stabilizes during a temperature measurement. A method of determining temperature using the ear thermometer takes successive measurements, stores the measurements in a moving time window, averages the measurements in the moving window, determines whether the average has stabilized, and outputs an average temperature. A method of calculating a subject's temperature determines the temperature of a cold junction of the thermopile, looks up a bias and slope of the thermopile based upon the temperature of the cold junction, measures the output of the thermopile, and calculates the subject's temperature based upon a linear relationship between the output and the subject's temperature. The linear relationship is defined by the bias and the slope.

A wearable system configured to collect thermal measurements related to respiration. The system includes a frame configured to be worn on a user's head, and at least one non-contact thermal camera (e.g., thermopile or microbolometer based sensor). The thermal camera is small and lightweight, physically coupled to the frame, located close to the user's face, does not occlude any of the user's mouth and nostrils, and is configured to take thermal measurements of: a portion of the right side of the user's upper lip, a portion of the left side of the user's upper lip, and a portion of the user's mouth. The thermal measurements are forwarded to a computer that calculates breathing related parameters, such as breathing rate, an extent to which the breathing was done through the mouth, an extent to which the breathing was done through the nostrils, and ratio between exhaling and inhaling durations.

A sensor unit comprising a heat resistant shell, the shell having a plurality of viewing windows spaced around the shell exterior to define a 360° view around the unit, each viewing window being optically coupled to an infrared pyroelectric sensor and an infrared thermopile sensor, the interior of the shell defining a chamber containing at least two different smoke detectors, the shell having ventilation holes communicating with the chamber and temperature sensors mounted on the unit, the shell housing at least one printed circuit board coupled to the sensors and detectors and supporting a computer and radio transmitter, and a rechargeable power source powering the printed circuit board.

The invention discloses a dual channel microwave power detection system based on a microelectronic mechanical microwave power sensor and a preparation method thereof. The system has the advantages of simple structure, large measurement range and no direct current power consumption. The system is based on a gallium arsenide substrate. A coplanar waveguide transmission line (A), a thermoelectric MEMS microwave power sensor (B) and an MEMS clamped beam capacitor type microwave power sensor (C) are designed on the substrate. When the power of a microwave signal is small, the thermoelectric MEMS microwave power sensor carries out detection according to the one-to-one corresponding relationship between the thermopile output voltage and the microwave power. When the power of the microwave signal is large, the MEMS clamped beam capacitor type microwave power sensor carries out detection. A square mass block is designed on an MEMS clamped beam above the coplanar waveguide transmission line. The area with the coplanar waveguide transmission line is increased, and at the same time the weight of the center position of the MEMS clamped beam is increased. Static power is more likely to cause large deformation of the MEMS clamped beam, and the system sensitivity is improved.

A system for generating tracking coordinate information in response to movement of an information-indicating element includes an array (55) of IR sensors (60-x,y) disposed along a surface (55A) of the array. Each IR sensor includes first (7) and second (8) thermopile junctions connected in series to form a thermopile (7,8) within a dielectric stack (3) of a radiation sensor chip (1). The first thermopile junction is more thermally insulated from a substrate (2) of the radiation sensor chip than the second thermopile junction. A sensor output signal between the first and second thermopile junctions is coupled to a bus (63). A processing device (64) is coupled to the bus for operating on information representing temperature differences between the first and second thermopile junctions of the various IR sensors, respectively, caused by the presence of the information-indicating element to produce the tracking coordinate information as the information-indicating element moves along the surface.

The invention relates to an integrated silicon chip for testing acceleration, pressure and temperature, and the manufacturing method thereof. The invention is characterized in manufacturing the pressure sensor, temperature sensor and accelerometers of thermoelectric pile on to one chip by the same micro processing technology. The acceleration is detected by adopting thermal convection type accelerometers, using polysilicon resistor as heater, using a thermoelectric pile composed of two pairs of metals (such as aluminium and tungsten-titanium) and P type or N type polysilicon to detect the temperature difference in the sealed cavity caused by acceleration. The high accurate absolute pressure sensor is manufactured by using silicon nitride film with low stress as the core structure layer of the pressure sensor chip, and forming force sensitive resistor track by polysilicon film, forming vacuum reference cavity by TEOS bolt in LPCVD furnace. At the same time, the temperature sensor is composed by using polysilicon thermistor to detect temperature change. The integrated chip achieves the advantages of microminiaturization, low cost, high precision, high reliability and high stability.

An IR detector in the form of a thermopile including one or more thermocouples on a dielectric membrane supported by a silicon substrate. Each thermocouple is composed of two materials, at least one of which is p-doped or n-doped single crystal silicon. The device is formed in an SOI process. The device is advantageous as the use of single crystal silicon reduces the noise in the output signal, allows higher reproducibility of the geometrical and physical properties of the layer and in addition, the use of an SOI process allows a temperature sensor, as well as circuitry to be fabricated on the same chip. The detector can also have an IR filter wafer bonded onto it and / or have arrays of thermopiles to increase the sensitivity. The devices can also be integrated with an IR source on the same silicon chip and packaged to form a complete and miniaturised NDIR sensor.

A thermopile IR detector package structure makes use of the silicon micro-electro-mechanical processing technique fabricate an encapsulation having a cavity. The encapsulation is then installed onto a substrate of a detector to seal thermoelectric components on the substrate. In addition to having the sealing function, the encapsulation also has the function of detecting the spectrum and field of view. Next, a carrier substrate is combined with sensing components to form a surface mount device applicable to assembly and fabrication of various related circuits. The thermopile IR detector package structure not only facilitates mass production and reduces fabrication process, material, volume ad weight, but the formed surface mount device is also in agreement with automatically produced electronic components.

An apparatus for sensing an analyte in a gas. The apparatus includes a gas collecting device within the apparatus for collecting the gas containing the analyte, a gas input in fluid communication with the gas collecting device for inputting the gas containing the analyte into the gas collecting device, an analyte interactant in fluid communication with the gas collecting device, wherein the analyte interactant, when contacted by the analyte, reacts to cause a change in thermal energy within the gas collecting device, the anlayte interactant being disposed in a plurality of regions separate from one another, a thermopile device comprising at least one thermopile thermally coupled to the gas collecting device to generate a signal in response to the change in thermal energy, wherein the signal comprises information useful in characterizing the analyte. A related method also is disclosed.

This disclosure provides methods to integrate heat generating nanoparticles to microelectromechanical (MEMs) and photonic devices such as microbolometers and thermopiles for better photodetection and electrical energy generation. Nanoparticles include noble metal and semiconductor nanocrystals of different shapes, as light sensing and heat generating materials.

A microfluidic embedded nanoelectromechanical system (NEMs) force sensor provides an electrical readout. The force sensor contains a deformable member that is integrated with a strain sensor. The strain sensor converts a deformation of the deformable member into an electrical signal. A microfluidic channel encapsulates the force sensor, controls a fluidic environment around the force sensor, and improves the read out. In addition, a microfluidic embedded vacuum insulated biocalorimeter is provided. A calorimeter chamber contains a parylene membrane. Both sides of the chamber are under vacuum during measurement of a sample. A microfluidic cannel (built from parylene) is used to deliver a sample to the chamber. A thermopile, used as a thermometer is located between two layers of parylene.

A color contour of an object is displayed from information that is obtained using an array of thermopile sensors. A color contour of an object is generated by pre-establishing a relationship between IR radiation power and color, measuring the power of incident IR radiation emanating from different locations on the object, mapping the measured IR radiation powers to colors, and generating color contour information that can be displayed on a color display. The color contour information represents the temperature of an object at different locations.

An infrared sensor includes a substrate having a cavity, a membrane bridging the cavity, a thermopile-type infrared light sensing element, an infrared light absorption film located over the membrane in correspondence with positions of hot junctions of the thermopile, and an infrared light reflection coating located over the substrate to shield an area not covered by the infrared light absorption film. The coverage of the infrared light reflection coating is sufficient to shield an area not covered by the infrared light absorption film to improve the detection sensitivity of the sensor.

The invention discloses an air conditioner and a control method, device and system of the air conditioner. The method comprises the steps that a thermopile sensor is started; area temperature, detected by the thermopile sensor, in an area to be detected is acquired, whether the area temperature of the area to be detected is balanced or not is judged, and the area to be detected comprises a plurality of secondary detected areas; when the area temperature of the area to be detected is not balanced, the air blowing direction of the air conditioner is controlled, and air is supplied to the secondary detected areas with the high area temperature or the low area temperature; when the area temperature of the area to be detected is balanced, the air blowing direction of the air conditioner is controlled, the air is supplied to the position where people are located in the area to be detected, or the air is prevented from being supplied to the position where people are located in the area to be detected. The problem that the air conditioner cannot be controlled to automatically supply the air according to needs due to the fact that the air supply control method set by an air conditioner controller in the correlation technique is fixed is solved.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor processing system that employs infrared-based thermopile detector for process control, by analyzing a material of interest, based on absorption of infrared light at a characteristic wavelength by such material. Specifically, an infrared light beam is transmitted through a linear transmission path from an infrared light source through a sampling region containing material of interest into the thermopile detector. The linear transmission path reduces the risk of signal loss during transmission of the infrared light. The transmission path of the infrared light may comprise a highly smooth and reflective inner surface for minimizing such signal loss during transmission.

A radiation sensor includes an integrated circuit radiation sensor chip (1A) including first (7) and second (8) thermopile junctions connected in series to form a thermopile (7,8) within a dielectric stack (3). The first thermopile junction (7) is insulated from a substrate (2) of the chip. A resistive heater (6) in the dielectric stack for heating the first thermopile junction is coupled to a calibration circuit (67) for calibrating responsivity of the thermopile (7,8). The calibration circuit causes a current flow in the heater and multiplies the current by a resulting voltage across the heater to determine power dissipation. A resulting thermoelectric voltage (Vout) of the thermopile (7,8) is divided by the power to provide the responsivity of the sensor.

A method for manufacturing thermopile carrier chips comprises forming first type thermocouple legs and second type thermocouple legs on a first surface of a substrate and afterwards removing part of the substrate form a second surface opposite to the first surface, thereby forming a carrier frame from the substrate and at least partially releasing the thermocouple legs from the substrate, wherein the thermocouple legs are attached between parts of the carrier frame. First type thermocouple legs and second type thermocouple legs may be formed on the same substrate or on a separate substrate. In the latter approach both types of thermocouple legs may be optimised independently. The thermocouple legs may be self-supporting or they may be supported by a thin membrane layer. After mounting the thermopile carrier chips in a thermopile unit or in a thermoelectric generator, the sides of the carrier frame to which no thermocouple legs are attached are removed. A thermoelectric generator according to the present disclosure may be used for generating electrical power, for example for powering an electrical device such as a watch. It may be used with a heat source and / or heat sink with high thermal resistance, such as a human body.

The invention relates to a non-refrigerant thermopile infrared detector and a manufacturing method thereof. The invention is characterized in that a micro heater is arranged in the infrared absorption area of a non-refrigerant thermopile infrared detector. Because the manufacturing process of the micro heater is completely compatible with that of the thermopile, the two processes are integrated on one chip. By using the micro heater to measure the thermal conduction of the encapsulated infrared detector, the invention realizes the measurement of the vacuum degree of an encapsulated device; and by using the micro heater to simulate the operation state of the thermopile infrared detector, the invention realizes the wafer level self-test of the infrared performance of the detector. The invention can be used for mass production, can monitor the key process step of wafer level bonding and vacuum encapsulation, and can realize the wafer level measurement of the infrared performance of the detector. Besides, the invention improves the device-testing efficiency, reduces the testing cost, and can realize a low-cost and high-performance non-refrigerant thermopile infrared detector.

Embodiments disclosed herein provide a non-intrusive thermal (NIT) monitor for sensing temperatures useful for semiconductor manufacturing applications. In some embodiments, a NIT monitor comprises a thermopile, a fluid housing with a fluid window, and an elongated member positioned between the thermopile and the fluid window for transmitting or reflecting infrared signals corresponding to a temperature of a fluid in the fluid housing. The fluid housing may have a cross-sectional profile to enable the manipulation of the fluid flow under the fluid window, enhancing the speed and accuracy of the temperature sampling. The elongated member, which may be hollow and coated with gold, may an extended piece of the fluid housing or a part of an optics housing. In some embodiments, the NIT monitor is connected to a main conditioning circuit board via a cable for processing the temperature measurements at a remote location.