Apparatus for the high temperature measurement of the Seebeck coefficient in thermoelectric materials

The Seebeck coefficient is a physical parameter routinely measured to identify the potential thermoelectric performance of a material. However, researchers employ a variety of techniques, conditions, and probe arrangements to measure the Seebeck coefficient, resulting in conflicting materials data. To compare and evaluate these methodologies, and to identify optimal Seebeck coefficient measurement protocols, we have developed an improved experimental apparatus to measure the Seebeck coefficient under multiple conditions and probe arrangements (300 K-1200 K). This paper will describe in detail the apparatus design and instrumentation, including a discussion of its capabilities and accuracy as measured through representative diagnostics. In addition, this paper will emphasize the techniques required to effectively manage uncertainty in high temperature Seebeck coefficient measurements.     

A high temperature apparatus for measurement of the Seebeck coefficient

A high temperature Seebeck coefficient measurement apparatus with various features to minimize typical sources of error is designed and built. Common sources of temperature and voltage measurement error are described and principles to overcome these are proposed. With these guiding principles, a high temperature Seebeck measurement apparatus with a uniaxial 4-point contact geometry is designed to operate from room temperature to over 1200 K. This instrument design is simple to operate, and suitable for bulk samples with a broad range of physical types and shapes.     

Fully automated measurement setup for non-destructive characterization of thermoelectric materials near room temperature

A measurement setup is presented that allows for a complete and non-destructive material characterization of electrochemically deposited thermoelectric material. All electrical (Seebeck coefficient α, electrical conductivity σ), thermal (thermal conductivity λ), and thermoelectric (figure of merit ZT) material parameters are determined within a single measurement run. The setup is capable of characterizing individual electrochemically deposited Bi(2+x)Te(3-x) pillars of various size and thickness down to a few 10 μm, embedded in a polymer matrix with a maximum measurement area of 1 × 1 cm(2). The temperature range is limited to an application specific window near room temperature of 10?°C to 70?°C. A maximum thermal flux of 1 W∕cm(2) can be applied to the device under test (DUT) by the Peltier element driven heat source and sink. The setup has a highly symmetric design and DUTs can be mounted and dismounted within few seconds. A novel in situ recalibration method for a simple, quick and more accurate calibration of all sensors has been developed. Thermal losses within the setup are analysed and are mathematically considered for each measurement. All random and systematic errors are encountered for by a MATLAB routine, calculating all the target parameters and their uncertainties. The setup provides a measurement accuracy of ±2.34 μV∕K for α, ±810.16 S∕m for σ, ±0.13 W∕mK for λ, and ±0.0075 for ZT at a mean temperature of 42.5?°C for the specifically designed test samples with a pillar diameter of 696 μm and thickness of 134 μm, embedded in a polyethylene terephthalate polymer matrix.     

高精度铂电阻测温系统

普通四线制铂电阻测温系统受恒流源长短期漂移、导线热电动势影响,其测量准确度难以超过0.1℃量级。本文分析了一种改进型4线制高精度铂电阻测温方法的原理误差,并设计了相应的高精度铂电阻测温系统。采用温度系数小、阻值稳定性好的参考电阻作为铂电阻阻值测量基准,消除了恒流源长期漂移引起的铂电阻测温误差;分别在正、反向恒流激励条件下测量了铂电阻上的电压,利用导线热电势大小与方向的短期不变性,对得到的两电压量求差以消除导线热电势的影响;通过半导体致冷器（TEC）控制恒流源温度来减小恒流源的短期电流漂移,进而减小其对铂电阻测温精度的影响;设计了精度高、阶跃响应速度快的分时复用式电压信号采集单元用来高精度地测量铂电阻和参考电阻上电压量的比值。等效实验和校准实验结果表明,高精度铂电阻测温系统的测量稳定性优于0.005 ℃/10 day,测量分辨力优于0.005 ℃,测量准确度为0.02 ℃（k=2）,满足超精密激光干涉测量系统提出的高精度温度测量需求。     

铂电阻高精度温度测量系统设计

为了满足工业生产对温度测量的高精度要求,研制了一种恒流源微电流驱动四线制铂电阻Pt100的高精度温度测量系统.分析了引起系统测量误差的原因,给出了减少误差的方法;阐述了恒流源、仪用放大、抗混叠滤波、采样保持、A/D采样等主要电路的设计原理和参数选择准则;说明了测量系统的标定方法.该系统采用四线制铂电阻Pt100作为温度传感器,由恒流源微电流驱动产生电压,可以完全去除铂电阻自身的引线电阻、有效减少自热效应;通过仪用放大电路、抗混叠滤波电路和采集保持电路可以有效滤除采集信号中的干扰信号,降低外界干扰对测量系统的影响,增强测量系统稳定性、可靠性和准确性.测试结果表明,该系统性能稳定可靠,标定后测量误差小于±0.03℃.     

High temperature Z-meter setup for characterizing thermoelectric material under large temperature gradient

To properly estimate a thermoelectric material's performance, one should be able to characterize a single thermoelectric (TE) element with a large temperature gradient. In this work, we present an experimental setup including a Z-meter that can heat the sample to a very high temperature of 1200 °C in vacuum. The Z-meter can simultaneously measure all three thermoelectric parameters (Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity), as well as measure the generated power and the efficiency for a single TE leg. Furthermore, this measurement of power conversion efficiency is used to generate a measure of the material's ZT. An in situ metallurgical bond was used to achieve low thermal (0.05 Kcm(2)∕W) and electrical (3 mΩ) contact parasitics. An integrated strain gauge ensures reproducible thermal contact. At high temperature (>600 K), radiative heat transfer is modeled and the instrument is optimized to suppress the systematic error to below 7%. The TE parameters and ZT for a bulk-sample (Bi(2)Te(3)) and a thin-film sample (ErAs:InGaAlAs) with a large temperature gradient (ΔT ～ 200 K) have been measured and are within 3%-7% of the independently measured values.     

面向Pt100铂电阻的高精度多路测温系统

针对Pt100铂电阻多路测温系统存在精度低、硬件电路设计重复等问题,设计了一种面向Pt100铂电阻的高精度多路测温系统。以Pt100为温度传感器、Atmega16L为控制核心,通过模拟开关CD4052组合进行了多路测量控制,运用滤波、放大等信号调理电路以及16位高采样精度的A/D转换器ADS8320,以查表结合软件补偿的方法进行了非线性补偿,从而实现了高精度测温;同时,对各组成部分的误差来源进行了分析,计算出了测温系统的综合误差。研究结果表明,该系统具有测量精度高、稳定性好、可扩展性强等特点。     

Voltage divider resistance for high-resolution of the thermistor temperature measurement

When measuring temperature with a voltage divider, and changing the variation of the thermistor resistance from the temperature to the voltage, the divider resistance greatly impacts the resolution of each ADC step. This work presents a method for determining the divider resistance to minimize the resolution’s maximum value in a given temperature range. Since the function of the resolution strongly depends on the derivative of the thermistor resistance, we also investigated the effect on the resolution when the derivative was calculated by forward and backward finite differences and the Stein–Hart calibration equation. The results showed that the resolution’s maximum calculated by the three methods had only a 5% difference, for the four types of commonly used NTC thermistors. Also, we demonstrated that the divider resistance which minimizes the interval resolution’s maximum can be determined by the thermistor resistance and its derivative at each end of the temperature range.     

空气阀门流阻和流量系数测试系统的研制

介绍了一种大型空气阀门流阻和流量系数的测试系统，该系统采用变频器调节工况，计算机采集试验参数，系统测量精度高，操作简便。     

A measurement system for thin elastohydrodynamic lubrication films

An elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) film measurement system using multi-beam interferometry is introduced in this paper. The measurement principle and the instrumentation are discussed. A simple and efficient method is suggested to obtain the fringe order of measured points. It is demonstrated that the presented measurement system can provide continuous measurement of lubricating films from nano to micro scales at a nano-level resolution, and can be used to investigate ultra-thin EHL films and tiny variations in EHL films. Translated from Tribology, 2006, 26(2): 150–153 [译自: 摩擦学学报]     

Acoustic CT system for temperature distribution measurement

In this paper,a measurement method for crosssectional temperature distribution is addressed. A novel method based on an acoustic CT technique is proposed. Specifically,the temperature distributions are estimated using the time of flight data of several ultrasonic propagation paths. The times of the flight data contain both temperature and wind effect,and the method to select only temperature component is introduced. A filtered back projection method is applied to reconstruct the temperature distributions from the time of flight data. An experimental system was designed and fabricated to realize simultaneous temperature and wind velocity distribution measurements. Through this system,the effectiveness of the proposed measurement method is confirmed.     

T型硅微悬臂梁频率温度系数的测试研究

为了获得T型单晶硅微悬臂梁的固有频率温度系数,首先从理论上分析了T型微悬臂梁的固有频率随温度的变化规律,并建立了其固有频率的温度系数模型。随后搭建了带有高温环境加载功能的MEMS微结构动态特性测试系统,采用OFV534激光多普勒测振仪获取微结构的振动响应,采用基于压电陶瓷的底座激励方法实现对微结构的激励,在激励装置中采用了一个可动机构,解决了压电陶瓷在高温环境下使用的难题。最后,使用带有高温环境加载功能的MEMS微结构动态特性测试系统,测试了一种典型T型单晶硅微结构的动态特性,测试温度范围为室温~300℃,得到硅微悬臂梁的固有频率温度系数约为-2.71×10-5/℃,与理论分析的结果具有很好的一致性。     

Method for measuring thermal contact resistance of graphite thin film materials

Thermal contact resistance (TCR) is an important parameter in thermal analysis of materials. Because of many influential factors, it is difficult to find a general model or computational formula to calculate the TCR of a solid interface. In many engineering applications, TCR values are usually obtained through experiments. Unlike extensive research focusing on ordinary columnar materials, this paper aims at measuring the TCR values of graphite thin film materials. The technical challenge is that it is not convenient to embed thermocouples into such materials. To overcome this challenge, a steady-state method using a copper heat flux meter is developed, which provides a useful tool for indirect TCR measurement. In our experiments, the TCR values of the graphite thin film materials are successfully measured under different temperature and pressure levels. The results provide a valuable guideline for the use of this type of material in high-temperature, high-pressure applications.     

The measurement of thermal conductivity variation with temperature for solid materials

An apparatus was designed to routinely measure the thermal conductivity variation with temperature for solid materials. The apparatus was calibrated by measuring the thermal conductivity variations with temperature for aluminum, zinc, tin and indium metals. The variations of thermal conductivity with temperature for the Zn-[x] wt.% Sb alloys (x = 10, 20, 30 and 40) were then measured by using the linear heat flow apparatus designed in present work. From experimental results it can be concluded that the linear heat flow apparatus can be used to measure thermal conductivity variation with temperature for multi component metallic alloys as well as pure metallic materials and for any kind of alloys. Variations of electrical conductivity with temperature for the Zn-[x] wt.% Sb alloys were determined from the Wiedemann–Franz (W–F) equation by using the measured values of thermal conductivity. Dependencies of the thermal and electrical conductivities on composition of Sb in the Zn–Sb alloys were also investigated. According to present experimental results, the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity for the Zn-[x] wt.% Sb alloys decrease with increasing the temperature and the composition of Sb.     

Note: epitaxial ruby thin film based photonic sensor for temperature measurement

Deposition of optical quality C-axis oriented epitaxial thin film of ruby via pulsed laser deposition technique on sapphire substrate is reported. The film is characterized by Raman spectra and photoluminescence spectra. The peak positions of R-line and the corresponding linewidth are observed to be temperature dependent. The sensitivity of R(1)-line position, υ, with the temperature, (dυ/dT), in the range of 138-368 K shows linear behavior confirming its applicability as temperature sensor.     

A magnetron sputtering system for the preparation of patterned thin films and in situ thin film electrical resistance measurements

We describe a versatile three gun magnetron sputtering system with a custom made sample holder for in situ electrical resistance measurements, both during film growth and ambient changes on film electrical properties. The sample holder allows for the preparation of patterned thin film structures, using up to five different shadow masks without breaking vacuum. We show how the system is used to monitor the electrical resistance of thin metallic films during growth and to study the thermodynamics of hydrogen uptake in metallic thin films. Furthermore, we demonstrate the growth of thin film capacitors, where patterned films are created using shadow masks.     

多路温度测量系统在室温控制中的应用

温度控制一直是一个很重要的控制对象,由于控制对象的大滞后性等特征,因此对温度的精确控制及处理也是一个难点。本设计以温度检测为研究对象,通过合理利用数据采集技术和无线通信技术,提出了基于单片机与无线传输模块为核心的多路温度测量系统,并对该系统的硬件与软件进行了较为全面的理论设计。本系统着重论述了温度数据的采集、转换、无线通信、数码显示等电路设计环节,并利用C51软件对系统各个环节进行程序监控。通过本系统的设计,较好的实现了温度检测的智能化和数字化要求,并能够产生较好的实际应用价值及经济效果。     

The influence of the relationship between yield strength and temperature on the stress state in a thin hollow disk

A thin hollow elastoplastic or perfectly plastic disk placed in a rigid cylindrical container and subjected to the action of a temperature field is considered. The conditions of plane stress state are assumed. The Mises yield condition is satisfied in the plastic zone. The main feature of the problem formulation is in the relationship between yield strength and temperature, taken in arbitrary form. A parametric analysis of the solution is carried out for the linear relationship. It was shown that the relationship between yield strength and temperature needs to be taken into account for some materials to define the stress-strain state in the disk and to estimate the conditions of the transition of the whole disk to the plastic state.     

Glass enclosed resistance thermometer for temperature measurement inside a high-pressure vessel

A method is described for the measurement of temperature inside a high-pressure vessel to 3000 bars. This involves enclosing a Pt resistance thermometer in a soft glass tube with sealed Pt contacts. resistance thermometer in a soft glass tube with sealed Pt contacts.     

LED中荧光材料量子效率测量系统的设计

LED作为新兴光源,与传统的白炽灯光源相比,具有很大的优势。衡量其荧光材料发光性能的一个重要参数就是量子效率。为了准确地测量荧光材料的量子效率,提出了一种基于半积分球装置的量子效率测量系统。该系统采用了中心波长为465nm的蓝光LED芯片作为激发光源,与直径为150mm的半积分球和直径为150mm、中心孔直径为8mm的平面反射镜搭配使用,运用光纤和线阵CCD光谱仪采集光谱数据,并进一步计算出量子效率。为了验证系统的有效性,分别采用两种不同的荧光材料对测量系统进行测试,测量结果与厂商所给的数值基本一致。实验结果表明,该测量系统能有效地评估LED中荧光材料的发光性能。