Thermopile sensors

At room temperature, thermoelectric materials based on bismuth telluride are the most effective ones and therefore suitable for accurate temperature difference measurements. Coupling several thermoelements in series to form thermopiles increases the sensitivity even further. This is interesting for many applications, such as thermal radiation detectors, calorimeter structures or heat flow sensors.

Fraunhofer IPM develops processes for the deposition and micro-structuring of these highly efficient thermoelectric materials. For example, we have developed a calorimeter chip that can be used as a reaction calorimeter or as a dynamic differential calorimeter to measure the smallest amounts of analyte.