Smartec Digital Temperature Sensor Selection Guide

Smartec Digital Temperature Sensors are available in a number of encapsulations: TO18, TO92, TO220, SOIC-8L, SOT223. The Smartec SMT172 can be supplied as a naked die as well.

Introduction

The SMT172 is an ultra-low power, high-precision temperature sensor that combines the ease of use with the world’s leading performance over a wide temperature range. Using the most recent advances in the silicon temperature sensing technology, the SMT172 has applied some really sophisticated IC design techniques as well as high-precision calibration methods, to achieve an absolute inaccuracy of less than ±0.1°C in the range of -20°C to 60°C and an accuracy of 0.4 °C from -45 to +130 °C. This makes the sensor especially useful in all applications where human conditions (climate control, food processing etc.) are to be controlled. The CMOS output of the sensor can drive cable lengths up to 20 meters. This makes the SMT172 very useful in remote sensing and control applications..

The SMT172 operates with a supply voltage from 2.7V to 5.5V. The typical active current of only 60µA, the high speed conversion over 4000 outputs per second (at room temperature) and an extremely low noise makes this sensor the most energy efficient temperature sensor in the world (0.36µJ/measurement).

The SMT172 has a pulse width modulated (PWM) output signal, where the duty cycle is proportional to the measured temperature. This makes it possible that the sensor can directly interface to a MCU without using an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). Today, the hardware Timer in a MCU to read our PWM signal has become available almost universally, fast in speed and low in cost. Therefore, it is extremely easy for any user to get started with this sensor and achieve a very quick time to market.

This combination of high accuracy, high resolution, high speed, and low-energy consumption makes this sensor suited for commercial and industrial applications.