Temperature sensor made of polymer-derived ceramics for high-temperature applications

Abstract

This paper describes the use of polymer-derived SiAlCN (silicoaluminum carbonitride) ceramics (PDC) to fabricate a temperature sensor for high-temperature applications. A unique sensor head was designed and fabricated with Pt wires seamlessly embedded in as electrodes. Material characterization test demonstrates that the resistance of the senor head decreases monotonically with surrounding temperature, suggesting its readiness to be used for temperature measurement. In actual experiment (temperature up to 830 °C), the measurement of the PDC sensor demonstrates good repeatability to both unidirectional and bidirectional temperature variations for the total span of 10 h, and its measurement follows closely with the thermal couple measurement. These results demonstrated that the temperature sensors made of polymer-derived ceramics (PDC) have excellent accuracy and repeatability, and can be used in high temperature environment.