Noise characteristics of thermistors: measurement methods and results of selected devices

Published

February 13, 2017

Author(s)

Ivan Ryger, Michelle S. Stephens, Malcolm G. White, Nathan A. Tomlin, Matthew T. Spidell, John H. Lehman, Dave Harber

Abstract

As part of the development of a spectrally-uniform room-temperature absolute radiometer, we have studied the electrical noise of several bulk chip thermistors in order to estimate the noise floor and optical dynamic range. Understanding the fundamental limits of the temperature sensitivity leads inevitably to studying the noise background of the complex electro-thermal system. To this end, we employ a measurement technique based on alternating-current synchronous demodulation. Results of our analysis show that the combination of a low-current noise Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) preamplifier, together with chip thermistors is optimal for our purpose, yielding a root mean square noise temperature of 2.8 µK in the frequency range of 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz.

Citation

Review of Scientific Instruments

Volume

88

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4976029

Keywords

Resistance noise, 1/f noise, white noise, synchronous demodulation, fast Fourier transform

Citation

Ryger, I. , Stephens, M. , White, M. , Tomlin, N. , Spidell, M. , Lehman, J. and Harber, D. (2017), Noise characteristics of thermistors: measurement methods and results of selected devices, Review of Scientific Instruments, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4976029 (Accessed February 6, 2025)