DISCUSSION

Medical uses
In order to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone involved, temperature transducers
are essential medical tools that enable healthcare professionals to monitor and maintain the
temperature of patients, equipment, and surroundings.
Patients' body temperatures, and even the temperatures of medical supplies like fluids and
drugs, are all monitored and measured using temperature transducers. In addition to
helping to detect and treat fever and other diseases that may be brought on by changes in
body temperature, this can also help to make sure that medical equipment is operating as
intended and that medications and fluids are at the appropriate temperature for use.

Automotive uses
In the automotive industry, temperature transducers are used for a variety of purposes
including detecting the temperature of air and fuel as well as controlling and monitoring the
temperature of engines and other components. The following are some specific instances of
temperature transducers being employed in the automotive industry:
1. Engine temperature control: Engine parts including cylinders, oil, and coolant
temperature are measured using temperature transducers. In order to keep the
engine running at the ideal temperature, this information is used to control the flow
of coolant and oil, as well as the timing of the ignition and the fuel/air mixture.
2. Air temperature measurement: The temperature of the air entering the engine is
measured using temperature transducers, and so this temperature may have an
impact on the engine's performance and efficiency.
3. Fuel temperature measurement: The performance and efficiency of the engine can
be impacted by the fuel temperature, which is measured using temperature
transducers.
4. Transmission temperature control: The temperature of the transmission fluid, which
is used to cool and lubricate the transmission, is measured using temperature
transducers. The transmission is kept at the ideal temperature by using this
information to regulate the flow of transmission fluid.

Agriculture
The temperature of various systems and components, such as greenhouses, storage
facilities, and irrigation systems, is controlled and monitored in agriculture with
temperature transducers. Examples of particular applications for temperature transducers
in agriculture include:
 1. Greenhouse temperature control: To maintain the ideal temperature for plant
growth, temperature transducers are used to measure the temperature inside
greenhouses. This data is then utilized to manage the heating and cooling systems.
2. Storage temperature control: The temperature inside storage facilities, such as silos
and warehouses, is measured using temperature transducers, to operate the heating
and cooling systems to maintain the ideal temperature for keeping crops and other
agricultural products.
3. Irrigation temperature control: The temperature of irrigation water is measured
using temperature transducers and the flow of water is controlled to keep it at the
ideal temperature for plant growth.
4. Soil temperature measurement: The temperature of the soil, which has an impact on
plant growth and health, is measured using temperature transducers.

Industrial
In industrial settings, temperature transducers are used to monitor and regulate the
temperature of equipment and processes, which can help to increase productivity, consume
less energy, and produce better products. Examples of specific industrial applications for
temperature transducers include:
1. Process temperature control: Industrial processes including chemical reactions,
welding, and drying involve temperature transducers to monitor the temperature
involvement, and to manage the temperature to ensure the process is running at the
right temperature.
2. Equipment temperature control: Industrial machinery including motors, pumps, and
compressors use temperature transducers that measure the equipment's
temperature. With the help of this data, the temperature is controlled to keep the
machinery at the right temperature and avoid overheating.
3. Environmental temperature measurement: In industrial settings, temperature
transducers are used to measure environmental temperatures, such as the
temperature of the air and water, and this data is utilized to make sure that the
working environment is secure and comfortable for employees.

LITERATURE REVIEW
As a cost-effective temperature sensor with high accuracy, thermocouples are normally made of two
different metal wires twisted bounded with one terminal(hot junction) soldered together. The other
terminal with two separated wires is connected to PCB traces respectively and two cold junctions are
formed. The thermocouples output voltage is proportional to the difference between cold junction
and hot junction, which is described by the Seebeck coefficient. In the practical circuit board design,
temperature of the two cold junctions must be maintained the same, treated as reference level. The
hot junction temperature is derived by adding thermocouple output signal to reference level, which
is called cold junction compensation. Three factors need to be considered in practical design to
guarantee the two cold junctions at the same isothermal. Firstly, the two junction points should be
as close as possible and it is better to be surrounded by bulk area of coppers. Secondly, full enclosure
is needed to isolate the cold junctions from air flow. Lastly, cold junctions are better far from other
parasitic thermal sources.

For thermocouples, external excitation is not needed due to natural thermo-electrical effect for
temperature-related output voltage signal generation. Meanwhile, it is also featured wide
measurement range, small size, high accuracy and relatively low cost[, which makes it very suitable
for sensors of electronic transducer ambient temperature detection. The output voltage of
thermocouples is usually mV level and needs to be amplified and converted to digital codes by high
quality amplification circuits and high resolution ADC. Also, filter is necessary due to background
noise and circuit noise during measurement. With consideration of random change of temperature,
extended Kalman filter(EKF) is selected to process acquired data. EKF is a stochastic filtering
algorithm which can tolerant noise and error in nonlinear systems. It is widely used in navigation,
process control and system identification. Considering the nonlinearity of Seebeck coefficients, the
collected temperature data of thermocouples is nonlinear for sure, while EKF can appropriately
linearize the model at a certain operation point. In this paper, thermocouples are chosen as sensor
to measure ambient temperature of electronic transducers and post-end signal conditioning circuits
and analog to digital conversion circuits are also designed. After nonlinearity correction and
stochastic filtering in central processor, the collected data is transmitted by serial communication to
concentrator located in transducer high voltage side and finally sent to merge unit of low voltage
side using fibres for further storage and analysis. By cyclic chamber experiments and field operation
data collection, the error characteristics of the proposed temperature monitoring system is studied
and the influence of ambient temperature fluctuation to output signal error of electronic
transducers based on low power current transformer(LPCT) is qualitatively analyzed