Infrared temperature sensor
11480471 · 2022-10-25
Assignee
Inventors
- Jenping Ku (Baoshan Township, Hsinchu County, TW)
- Chein-Hsun WANG (Hsin-Chu, TW)
- Chein-Hsing Yu (Zhudong Township, Hsinchu County, TW)
- Wen-Chang Yu (Taoyuan, TW)
Cpc classification
G01J5/0096
PHYSICS
G01J5/026
PHYSICS
G01J5/064
PHYSICS
G01K1/20
PHYSICS
G01J5/0846
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
An infrared temperature sensor comprises a first communication port and a second communication port. A plurality of infrared temperature sensors can be cascaded to each other and connected to an external host controller through the second communication port. The external host controller can set up and administer the unique addresses of the plurality of the infrared temperature sensors through the second communication port, whereby to selectively perform multicasting communication or unicasting communication with the plurality of infrared temperature sensors through the first communication port. The infrared temperature sensor further comprises a second thermopile sensing element used to sense the thermal radiation of a package structure, whereby to compensate for the measurement error induced by temperature variation of the package structure. Thus, the measurement accuracy is increased.
Claims
1. An infrared temperature sensor, comprising: a substrate; a cover, disposed on the substrate, cooperating with the substrate to define a receiving space, and including a window and a shield member; an infrared sensing chip, disposed on the substrate inside the receiving space, electrically connected with the substrate, and including at least one first thermopile sensing element and a second thermopile sensing element, wherein the first thermopile sensing element is corresponding to the window of the cover and receives a first infrared light beam from exterior to generate a first sensation signal; the second thermopile sensing element is corresponding to the shield member of the cover and receives a second infrared light beam radiated by the shield member to generate a second sensation signal; an infrared filter plate, disposed on the window, and allowing the first infrared light beam having a specific range of optical wavelengths to pass; an ambient temperature sensor, detecting an ambient temperature to generate an ambient temperature sensation signal; and a signal processor, electrically connected with the first thermopile sensing element, the second thermopile sensing element and the ambient temperature sensor to process the first sensation signal, the second sensation signal and the ambient temperature sensation signal, wherein the signal processor includes: a first communication port, being a bus architecture, wherein a host controller selectively performs multicasting communication or unicasting communication with the infrared temperature sensor through the first communication port; and a second communication port, cascading a plurality of the infrared temperature sensors to the host controller to enable the plurality of the infrared temperature sensors to receive address data that the host controller respectively assigns to the infrared temperature sensors.
2. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the second communication port includes a cascade input port and a cascade output port, wherein the cascade output port is electrically connected with the cascade input port of the infrared temperature sensor in a downstream side and the cascade input port of the infrared temperature sensor in the most upstream side is electrically connected with the host controller.
3. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 2, wherein the signal processor includes a shift register; the shift register receives and temporarily stores one piece of address data and outputs another piece of address data to the infrared temperature sensor in the downstream side in sequence.
4. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 2, wherein the address data and a clock signal are encoded in a Manchester coding method and shifted to each of the infrared temperature sensors in sequence through the cascade input ports and the cascade output ports; and a latch signal is transmitted to each of the infrared temperature sensors through the first communication port.
5. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 2, wherein the second communication port includes a first connection port; the first connection port is electrically connected with the host controller to receive a latch signal; the address data and a clock signal are encoded in a Manchester coding method and shifted to each of the infrared temperature sensors in sequence through the cascade input ports and the cascade output ports.
6. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 2, wherein the second communication port includes a first connection port and a second connection port; the first connection port and the second connection port are electrically connected with the host controller and respectively receive a latch signal and a clock signal; the address data are shifted to each of the infrared temperature sensors in sequence through the cascade input ports and the cascade output ports.
7. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the first communication port is an RS-485 or TIA-485-based interface with Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) driver, or an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) interface.
8. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1 comprising a plurality of the first thermopile sensing elements and a plurality of the infrared filter plates, wherein the plurality of the infrared filter plates respectively allows light beams, which separately have different ranges of optical wavelengths, to pass.
9. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the signal processor includes a non-volatile memory and the non-volatile memory stores the address data and a calibration parameter of the infrared temperature sensor.
10. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the ambient temperature sensor is a thermistor disposed in the receiving space or a silicon-based temperature sensor disposed in the infrared sensing chip.
11. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein a distance from the shield member to the second thermopile sensing element is greater than or equal to 100 μm.
12. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein a metal layer is formed on at least one of an inner surface and an outer surface of the cover.
13. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the cover includes a block wall; the block wall is corresponding to a position between the first thermopile sensing element and the second thermopile sensing element to reduce amount of the first infrared light beam received by the second thermopile sensing element.
14. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 13, wherein a distance from the block wall to the infrared sensing chip is smaller than or equal to 100 μm.
15. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 13, wherein a width of the block wall is greater than or equal to 0.1 mm.
16. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the cover is made of a crystal liquid polymer (LCP).
17. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the cover is joined to the substrate with a heat conduction glue.
18. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the infrared filter plate is joined to the cover with a heat conduction glue.
19. The infrared temperature sensor according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is made of Bismaleimide Triazine (BT) resin, or a ceramic material.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) The foregoing conceptions and their accompanying advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated after being better understood by referring to the following detailed description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
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DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
(12) Various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below and illustrated in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In addition to these detailed descriptions, the present invention can be widely implemented in other embodiments, and apparent alternations, modifications and equivalent changes of any mentioned embodiments are all included within the scope of the present invention and based on the scope of the Claims. In the descriptions of the specification, in order to make readers have a more complete understanding about the present invention, many specific details are provided; however, the present invention may be implemented without parts of or all the specific details. In addition, the well-known steps or elements are not described in detail, in order to avoid unnecessary limitations to the present invention. Same or similar elements in Figures will be indicated by same or similar reference numbers. It is noted that the Figures are schematic and may not represent the actual size or number of the elements. For clearness of the Figures, some details may not be fully depicted.
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(14) Each of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c also includes a second communication port, which is electrically connected with the host controller 20 through a second communication architecture C2. In the embodiment shown in
(15) The first connection port 304 is electrically connected with the host controller 20 to receive a latch signal LAT sent out by the host controller 20. The second connection port 305 is electrically connected with the host controller 20 to receive a clock signal CLK sent out by the host controller 20. In the embodiment shown in
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(17) For example, while the system is initiated or started, the host controller 20 reads the address data stored in the non-volatile memory of each of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c for the succeeding unicasting communication. If any one of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c only has a multicasting address (such as OOH), it indicates that unique addresses have not been assigned to the infrared temperature sensors. In such a case, the host controller 20 may assign address data to each of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c through the second communication architecture C2. Suppose that the system includes N pieces of infrared temperature sensors. The host controller 20 may send out in sequence N pieces of unique addresses through the cascade input ports 302a, 302b and 302c and the cascade output ports 303a, 303b and 303c; the N pieces of address data are further one by one shifted to the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c. After the N pieces of address data have been transmitted, the host controller 20 sends out the latch signals LAT to make the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c store the address data ADD, which are temporarily stored in the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c, into the non-volatile memories of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c to function as the unique addresses of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c. Then, the host controller 20 may perform unicasting communication with each of the infrared temperature sensors 30a, 30b and 30c through the unique addresses in the first communication architecture C1.
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(21) The infrared sensing chip 32 is disposed on the substrate 31 and electrically connected with the substrate 31. Refer to
(22) In one embodiment, the infrared sensing chip is an integrated chip. In one embodiment, the infrared sensing chip 32 includes a first thermopile sensing element 321a, a second thermopile sensing element 321b, an ambient temperature sensor 322 (as shown in
(23) The cover 33 is disposed on the substrate 31 and cooperates with the substrate 31 to define a receiving space. The infrared sensing chip 32 is disposed inside the receiving space between the cover 33 and the substrate 31. In one embodiment, the cover 33 is fixedly mounted on the substrate 31 with heat conduction glue 40. The heat conduction glue 40 can decrease the thermal resistance between the cover 33 and the substrate 31, whereby the temperature of the substrate 31 can easily vary with the temperature of the environment. Refer to
(24) In one embodiment, the cover 33 includes a block wall 333 disposed between the first thermopile sensing element 321a and the second thermopile sensing element 321b. The block wall 333 can block infrared light lest the first thermopile sensing element 321a receive the second infrared light beam radiated by the shield member 332 or the second thermopile sensing element 321b receive the first infrared light beam radiated by the inspected object. In one embodiment, the cover 33 is made of a material that infrared light is unable to penetrate, such as a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). It is the advantage of the cover 33 made of LCP: the element would not melt, collapse or degrade in performance while the element passes through the reflow furnace in the SMD package.
(25) The infrared filter plate 34 is disposed on one side of the window 331, allowing the infrared light having a specific range of optical wavelengths to pass. In one embodiment, the infrared filter plate 34 is fixedly mounted on the cover 33 with heat conduction glue 40. The heat conduction glue 40 can decrease the thermal resistance between the infrared filter plate 34 and the cover 33, whereby the temperature of the infrared filter plate 34 can easily vary with the temperature of the cover 33. In one embodiment, the infrared filter plate 34 includes a base material 341 and a filter layer 342 disposed on the base material 341, wherein the base material 341 may be a silicon base material.
(26) In one embodiment, the infrared sensing chip includes a plurality of first thermopile sensing elements 321a, and the cover 33 includes a plurality of corresponding infrared filter plates, whereby to form a multi-channel infrared temperature sensor. In one embodiment, the infrared filter plates, which are corresponding to the plurality of first thermopile sensing elements 321a, respectively allow the infrared light beams having different ranges of optical wavelengths to pass, whereby to detect the intensities of the infrared light beams having different ranges of optical wavelengths and measure the ratio of infrared radiations of different ranges of optical wavelengths of the inspected object.
(27) According to the structure mentioned above, the first thermopile sensing element 321a detects the thermal radiation of the external heat source through the window 331 of the cover 33; the second thermopile sensing element 321b detects the thermal radiation of the shield member 332 of the cover 33 (i.e. the package structure); the system uses the detection results of the second thermopile sensing element 321b as the basis for calibration and compensation. The infrared temperature sensor of the present invention can fast undertake calibration and compensation for the measurement errors resulting from the temperature variation of the package structure while the ambient temperature is fluctuating. For example, the ambient temperature may vary while the environment of an electric vehicle start or stop or the electric fan of a server is started.
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(31) The multiplexer 323c selects to output one of the sensation signals of the first thermopile sensing element 321a, the second thermopile sensing element 321b and the ambient temperature sensor 322 to the analog-to-digital converter 323e. The analog-to-digital converter 323e converts the sensation signal into a digital signal. The digital filter 323f processes the digital signal and stores the result in the register 323g. In one embodiment, the analog-to-digital converter 323e is a Sigma-Delta analog-to-digital converter, such as a 14 to 24-bit Sigma-Delta high-precision analog-to-digital converter. The communication interface 323h communicates with the host controller 20 through the first communication architecture C1, whereby to read data from or store data into the register 323g or the non-volatile memory 323i (such as the calibration parameters and unique addresses of the infrared temperature sensors), and whereby to select the signal channel and trigger the action of the process controller 323j. The process controller 323j communicates with the host controller 20 or another infrared temperature sensor 30 through the second communication architecture C2 for address administration. In one embodiment, the non-volatile memory 323i is an electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, or a multiple-times programmable (MTP) memory. In one embodiment, the shift register 306 in
(32) In conclusion, the infrared temperature sensor of the present invention comprises a first communication architecture and a second communication architecture. A plurality of infrared temperature sensors is cascaded to each other through the second communication architecture, whereby the external host controller can administrate the addresses of the cascaded infrared temperature sensors through the second communication architecture. Besides, the second thermopile sensing element of the infrared temperature sensor of the present invention can compensate the thermal radiation of the package structure. Thus, the present invention can fast calibrate and compensate for the measurement errors caused by the temperature variation of the package structure. Therefore, the present invention can promote the accuracy of temperature measurement in harsh environment.
(33) While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, a specific example thereof has been shown in the drawings and is herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the appended claims. The embodiments has been described above to demonstrate the technical thoughts and characteristics of the present invention and enable the persons skilled in the art to understand, make, and use the present invention. However, these embodiments are only to exemplify the present invention but not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any equivalent modification or variation according to the spirit of the present invention is to be also included by the scope of the present invention.