Mechanical temperature sensors
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Thermometer
A thermometer is a device that measures temperature (the hotness or coldness of an object) or temperature gradient (the rates of change of temperature in space). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb ...
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Bimetallic strip
A bimetallic strip or bimetal strip is a strip that consists of two strips of different metals which expand at different rates as they are heated. The different expansion rates cause the strip to bend one way if heated, and in the opposite dire ...
Electrical temperature sensors
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Thermistor
A thermistor is a semiconductor type of resistor in which the resistance is strongly dependent on temperature. The word ''thermistor'' is a portmanteau of ''thermal'' and ''resistor''. The varying resistance with temperature allows these devices ...
- Thermistors are thermally sensitive resistors whose prime function is to exhibit a large, predictable and precise change in electrical resistance when subjected to a corresponding change in body temperature. Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistors exhibit a decrease in electrical resistance when subjected to an increase in body temperature and Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) thermistors exhibit an increase in electrical resistance when subjected to an increase in body temperature.
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Thermocouple
A thermocouple, also known as a "thermoelectrical thermometer", is an electrical device consisting of two dissimilar electrical conductors forming an electrical junction. A thermocouple produces a temperature-dependent voltage as a result of the ...
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Resistance thermometer
Resistance thermometers, also called resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), are sensors used to measure temperature. Many RTD elements consist of a length of fine wire wrapped around a heat-resistant ceramic or glass core but other construction ...
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Silicon bandgap temperature sensor
Integrated circuit sensors
The
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
sensor
A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...
may come in a variety of interfaces — analogue or digital; for digital, these could be
Serial Peripheral Interface
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a de facto standard (with many variants) for synchronous serial communication, used primarily in embedded systems for short-distance wired communication between integrated circuits.
SPI follows a master� ...
,
SMBus
The System Management Bus (SMBus or SMB) is a single-ended simple two-wire bus for the purpose of lightweight communication. Most commonly it is found in chipsets of computer motherboards for communication with the power source for ON/OFF instru ...
/
I2C or
1-Wire
1-Wire is a Wired communication, wired half duplex, half-duplex Serial communication, serial Bus (computing), bus designed by Dallas Semiconductor that provides low-speed (16.3 kbit/s) data communication and IC power-supply pin, supply volt ...
.
In
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free software, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking NetBSD ...
, many of the I
2C temperature sensors from the below list have been supported and are accessible through the generalised
hardware sensors framework
since
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free software, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking NetBSD ...
3.9 (2006),
which has also included an ad-hoc method of automatically scanning the I
2C bus by default during system boot since 2006 as well.
In
NetBSD
NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
, many of these I
2C sensors are also supported and are accessible through the
envsys framework,
although none are enabled by default outside of
Open Firmware
Open Firmware is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It originated at Sun Microsystems where it was known as OpenBoot, and has bee ...
architectures like
macppc,
and a manual configuration is required before first use on
i386 or
amd64.
Remote uncooled IR thermal radiometer sensors are also commonly used in integrated circuits.
See also
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Celsius
The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius temperature scale "Celsius temperature scale, also called centigrade temperature scale, scale based on 0 ° for the melting point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point ...
,
Fahrenheit
The Fahrenheit scale () is a scale of temperature, temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the German-Polish physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accou ...
,
Kelvin
The kelvin (symbol: K) is the base unit for temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The Kelvin scale is an absolute temperature scale that starts at the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero), taken to be 0 K. By de ...
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Conversion of units of temperature
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List of LM-series integrated circuits
The following is a list of LM-series integrated circuits. Many were among the first analog integrated circuits commercially produced since late 1965; some were groundbreaking innovations. As of 2007, many are still being used. The LM series orig ...
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Temperature measurement
Temperature measurement (also known as thermometry) describes the process of measuring a current temperature for immediate or later evaluation. Datasets consisting of repeated standardized measurements can be used to assess temperature trends.
...
References
{{Reflist
Sensors
A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...
Temperature sensors
T