Paper Session III-B - Prospects of utilization of the space-purpose temperature sensors for public and commercial use

For the temperature monitoring of units, mechanisms and technological manufacture processes use of sensors which convert temperature to electric signal is preferable. Metal and semiconductor resistance thermometers, thermocouples and thermodiodes are such sensors. Comparative characteristics of these sensors are given in Tab. 1. Temperature ranges which are subject to monitoring and control in a number of the most important branches of engineering are represented by Tab. 2. Comparison of these data shows that in majority of cases temperature has to be measured in the range of 190 ¸ 450 K. It appears that thermodiode sensors are the most suitable for this purpose because they are superior to all other sensors in sensitivity, output signal level, cost and simplicity of use. Their salient feature is the possibility of connection with the measuring unit by means of two-wire connection line of length from some tens meters to some kilometers

Revealing the hopping mechanism of conduction in heavily doped silicon diodes

Measurements of temperature dependences of excess tunnel current in heavily doped silicon p-n junction diodes at fixed values of the forward bias are carried out in liquid helium temperature region. In some voltage interval, these dependences are described well by the Mott law for variable range hopping conductivity. The interpretation of these results considers a p-n junction from a nontraditional point of view, namely, as heavily doped and highly compensated semiconductor

Performance evaluation of a lossy transmission lines based diode detector at cryogenic temperature

This work is focused on the design, fabrication, and performance analysis of a square-law Schottky diodedetector based on lossy transmission lines working under cryogenic temperature (15 K). The design analysis of a microwave detector, based on a planar gallium-arsenide low effective Schottky barrier height diode, is reported, which is aimed for achieving large input return loss as well as flat sensitivity versus frequency. The designed circuit demonstrates good sensitivity, as well as a good return loss in a wide bandwidth at Ka-band, at both room (300 K) and cryogenic (15 K) temperatures. A good sensitivity of 1000 mV/mW and input return loss better than 12 dB have been achieved when it works as a zero-bias Schottky diodedetector at room temperature, increasing the sensitivity up to a minimum of 2200 mV/mW, with the need of a DC bias current, at cryogenic temperature.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness under the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 programme under the Reference No. CSD2010-00064. The authors would like to thank Eva Cuerno and Ana Pérez for the assistance in the assembly of the circuit

New evidence of the hopping nature of the excess tunnel current in heavily doped silicon p-n diodes at cryogenic temperatures

The new experimental data concerning the effect of magnetic field on electric properties of silicon diodes with high doping levels both in the emitter and base (conduction of which at low temperatures is determined by the excess tunnel current) has been analyzed. In addition to previous investigations of the influence of magnetic fields up to 9.4 T on this tunnel current at 4.2 K, now the measurements have been carried out up to 14 T at temperatures lower than the liquid helium temperature. Under these conditions, the transfer to saturation of the diode magnetoresistance was observed, which agrees with the results predicted theoretically for the hopping conduction via impurity centers in high magnetic fields