The present disclosure provides a thermal system that includes an array of heating resistor circuits having first termination ends and second termination ends, and a plurality of nodes connected to the heating resistor circuits at the first and second termination ends. The thermal system further includes power wires to provide power to the heating resistor circuits and signal wires to sense a temperature of each of the heating resistor circuits. Each node is connected to a power wire and to a signal wire, and a number of heating resistor circuits is greater than or equal to a number of power wires and to a number of the signal wires.

A thermal system includes a plurality of resistor circuits that define a number of resistor circuits R.sub.n. The thermal system also has a plurality of nodes that connect the plurality of resistor circuits and define a number of nodes N.sub.n. A plurality of power wires are connected to each of the plurality of nodes, and the plurality of power wires define a number of power wires P.sub.n. A plurality of signal wires connect to each of the plurality of nodes to sense the temperature of each of the resistor circuits, and the plurality of signal wires define a number of signal wires S.sub.n. The number of power wires P.sub.n and the number of signal wires S.sub.n is equal to the number of nodes N.sub.n, and the number of resistor circuits R.sub.n is greater than or equal to the number of nodes N.sub.n.

A heater comprising: an outer tube having a first thermal expansion coefficient; an inner tube having a second thermal expansion coefficient that is less than the first thermal expansion coefficient, wherein the inner tube is disposed concentrically with the outer tube such that there is a space between the inner and outer tubes; a conductive powder disposed within the space between the inner and outer tubes; and two electrodes in electrical contact with the conductive powder such that when a potential is introduced between the electrodes, the conductive powder functions as a resistive heater whose resistance changes with temperature based on different degrees of thermal expansion of the inner and outer tubes.

A thermal system includes a plurality of resistor circuits that define a number of resistor circuits R.sub.n. The thermal system also has a plurality of nodes that connect the plurality of resistor circuits and define a number of nodes N.sub.n. A plurality of power wires are connected to each of the plurality of nodes, and the plurality of power wires define a number of power wires P.sub.n. A plurality of signal wires connect to each of the plurality of nodes to sense the temperature of each of the resistor circuits, and the plurality of signal wires define a number of signal wires S.sub.n. The number of power wires P.sub.n and the number of signal wires S.sub.n is equal to the number of nodes N.sub.n, and the number of resistor circuits R.sub.n is greater than or equal to the number of nodes N.sub.n.

A heated blanket is presented that includes a self-regulating heating element contained therein for uniform heating of the heated blanket.