Goals:

• Thermal, mechanical and electrical design and manufacturing of a Schmit-Bolter sensor.

• The sensor must have the sensitivity and resolution of a commercially available sensor. 

• The uncertainty of the measurement must be equal to or better than a commercially available sensor.

• The sensor construction must be possible cheaply and using readily available parts.

Common Thermal Radiation Measurement Systems

Schmidt-Bolter Gauge Design and Thermal Considerations:

First Prototype:

Preliminary Tests:

Test Results:

Linearity:

Test Results using an LED light source with known total optical output:

Second Prototype:

The second prototype was built to provide a larger FoV for a much smaller 3 mm by 3 mm Peltier element.

Current Status

• The prototypes are being used in lab and industrial settings at the moment. The results of the tests showed very high reliability in the system. 

• The most important downside of the system is the long response time (20 s) that can be easily addressed using a proper Peltier element with a smaller thermal mass (for instance an Omega HFS-5 sensor). 

• The challenge of increasing the surface emissivity must be taken into account while looking for a sensor. The current Peltier element was coated in carbon nanoparticles and reached the emissivity of 0.986 over the visible and NIR range which is impressive.