Temperature Sensor Calibration Chamber with Nested Reference Samples
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing calibration methods for high-accuracy temperature sensors are time-consuming and inefficient, requiring several hours of stabilization in a controlled environment, which limits their applicability in fast-paced industrial settings.
Innovation Solution
A calibration arrangement featuring a sealable and thermally isolated chamber with a socket mount, circuit board, and thermal chuck, where temperature sensors are calibrated in close proximity to reference samples, allowing for fast thermalization and accurate calibration within seconds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional calibration methods are used with controlled temperature environments, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The calibration system is segmented into multiple independent calibration chambers, each capable of holding reference samples and DUTs in close proximity. This segmentation allows parallel calibration of multiple sensors simultaneously, reducing total calibration time while maintaining precision through isolated controlled environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested structure where calibration chambers are positioned within a larger thermal isolation system. Each chamber contains reference samples and DUTs in close proximity (nested arrangement), allowing fast thermalization between reference and test samples while the outer system provides thermal isolation from environmental fluctuations.
2Productivity
If multiple sensors are calibrated simultaneously, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision may deteriorate due to temperature gradients
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the calibration process into multiple independent chambers, each maintaining its own thermal environment. This allows parallel processing of multiple sensor batches without temperature gradients affecting all sensors simultaneously, as each chamber operates independently with its own reference samples.
Solution Approach 2:
Thermal isolation chambers act as intermediaries between the external environment and the calibration process. These chambers buffer temperature fluctuations and maintain stable thermal conditions for each calibration group, enabling parallel calibration without cross-interference or temperature gradients between different calibration zones.
3Measurement precision
If reference samples are placed far from DUTs, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision deteriorates due to thermalization delays
Solution Approach 1:
Reference samples and DUTs are nested within the same compact calibration chamber in close proximity. This nested arrangement ensures rapid thermalization between reference and test samples, achieving temperature equilibrium quickly and accurately, while the entire chamber is nested within the thermal isolation system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local thermal coupling by placing reference samples and DUTs in immediate proximity within each chamber, ensuring fast and accurate thermalization at the local level. Meanwhile, the overall system maintains thermal isolation from the external environment, creating optimal local thermal conditions without requiring complex global thermal management.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables high-accuracy calibration of multiple temperature sensors simultaneously within a short time frame, reducing thermalization time and improving calibration precision to below 100 mK.
Implementation Method 1
The thermal chuck is arranged in thermal contact with the socket mount and the circuit board, and is configured to thermalize the socket mount and the circuit board to a temperature set point
Implementation Method 2
a sufficiently small distance between the DUTs... and reference samples... allowing for fast thermalization of devices-under-test, DUTs
Data Source
AI summary
In an embodiment a method for calibrating temperature sensors includes arranging devices-under-test (DUTs) in a sealable and thermally isolated chamber of a calibration arrangement such that each of the DUTs is in proximity to, associated to and in thermal contact with at least one of a number of reference samples, controlling the calibration arrangement to thermalize the DUTs and the reference samples to a temperature set point and generating, based on a temperature-dependent quantity, a set of measurement signals for each of the DUTs, wherein each set of measurement signals comprises a test measurement signal from a distinct one of the DUTs and a reference measurement signal from each of an associated at least one of the reference samples.