Short-circuit measurement by Seebeck current detection of a single thermocouple and its application

A novel temperature-difference measurement method based on Seebeck current detection by a single thermocouple is proposed. Principle of the sensor is based on the measurement of short-circuit of Seebeck current due to the thermoelectric power in a single thermocouple. We focused on the fact that the internal resistance of n2+-Si corresponding to the short-circuit current can be three or four order decreased while Seebeck coefficient αs decreases only for a factor of three or four. We have made a theoretical model to evaluate the performance of our proposed short-circuit measurement using the generated thermoelectric output power comparison by sensor itself due to infrared (IR) absorption. It is shown that our proposed single thermocouple has a higher thermoelectric power output or equivalent than that of traditional thermopile. A single micro-cantilever thermocouple as for an IR sensor, which is composed of extremely low resistivity (<10−3 Ω cm) materials of n2+-Si and Al (Si: 1%) metal is developed, and its validity and effectiveness are demonstrated.