Time-Separating Heating and Sensor Functions of Thermistors in Precision Thermal Control Applications

A method allows combining the functions of a heater and a thermometer in a single device, a thermistor, with minimal temperature read errors. Because thermistors typically have a much smaller thermal mass than the objects they monitor, the thermal time to equilibrate the thermometer to the temperature of the object (τt) is typically much shorter than the thermal time of the object to change its temperature in response to an external perturbation (τO), τtO.