High stability Infrared sensor IC enables fast, accurate temperature measurements in demanding environments

December 20, 2011 - Tessenderlo, Belgium. Melexis: A common challenge for current high end thermometer guns is their sensitivity to fast temperature changes in their environment. A stabilization period of up to ½ hour in a new environment is often necessary to achieve accurate measurements. The new MLX90616ESF-HCA thermopile sensor with integrated electronic stabilization function uses proprietary Melexis technology to reduce the stabilization period to less than half a minute.

The MLX90616ESF-HCA incorporates a secondary thermopile sensor to detect temperature variations in the package and in the optical assembly. The signal of this secondary sensor is used to compensate electronically for the adverse effect on the measurement. In this way it is possible to make a thermometer gun which stabilizes in seconds and gives accurate results in extreme, demanding, environments.

The MLX90616 is intended to be used in applications where the user places a lens in front of the sensor to adjust the FOV to his application. The sensor-lens combination temperature measurement must be calibrated by the customer. Melexis provides the necessary software to do this in a typical engineering or production environment.

Extreme temperature range
The MLX90616 has been specifically designed to measure high object temperatures with a maximum of 1030ºC. The MLX90616 is factory calibrated in a wide temperature range of -40 to 85˚C for the ambient temperature. For integration in thermometer guns it comes with an 8 to 12 micron optical filter. The integrated electronics will calculate the object temperature based on the internal temperature, the thermopile output and the calibration data stored in the EEPROM by the thermometer manufacturer during his calibration process.

Resolution
The calculated object and ambient temperatures are available from RAM memory with a resolution of 0.02 ˚C. They are accessible by a 2 wire serial SMBus compatible protocol (0.02°C resolution) or via 10-bit PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) output.

Package and availability
The MLX90616ESF-HCA comes in an industry standard 4 pin TO-39 package and is immediately available.