Any one, who took a walk in a summer forest and was nearly eaten by thousands of angry and hungry mosquitoes, thought about a wonderful ability of these insects to find “fresh warm lunch”, in other words, objects, which are warmer than their environment. Mosquitoes are genial nature’s creation – unique thermal sensors, which cost evolution millions of years. Well, it took Russian scientists much less time to develop new thermally sensitive elements – Z-thermistors, which are perfect for temperature regulation, alarm devices for set temperatures and sensors for thermal diagnostics of oncological diseases.
The “heart” of Z-thermistor is the n-p semiconductor structure, silicone with small inclusions of atoms of other elements. Authors keep exact composition, technology and configuration of z-thermistor a secret, despite they have patented their development in Russia, Europe, China and America. Mentioned n-p structure reacts of temperature changes by shifting from one stable state with low current to another stable state with very high current. The temperature, which causes transition of the structure, is easily determined – all you have to do is changing element’s supply voltage. That is why thermistors are also called “readjusted alarm devices for set temperatures” – this means changing supply voltage leads to change in temperature, which causes abrupt current step, which can be detected easily, since its amplitude is quite significant even without gain – up to 80 of feed voltage. And one more thing – no additional devices for gaining output signal are required.
Read more: New Horizons of Thermodiagnostics