Temperature Sensors - Applications
Whether your design needs highly accurate temperature measurement or ensured functionality when designed into a space-constrained PCB, our temperature sensors deliver exceptional performance and reliability for many automotive, industrial, and personal electronics applications. The information below will help you identify the right temperature sensor for your design while explaining the benefits of temperature measurement for the specific applications.
Automotive
Temperature sensing in automotive applications demands reliability, accuracy, a small footprint and a fast response. TI delivers on this promise with the widest temperature sensing portfolio in the industry with many automotive graded parts (grade 1 and 0).
ADAS
Autonomous driver assistance systems (ADAS) are critical in the car to ensure passenger safety. Our portfolio of sensors delivers accurate and reliable solutions to protect against thermal damage.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensor fusion | As autonomous cars collect data from their environment, they consume vast amounts of power and produce heat to process this data. Monitoring these processing systems to keep them within safe operating temperature ranges is imperative. | Temperature threshold detection | |
| Cameras | Front cameras are exposed to heat from the sun on top of its own self-generated operation heat. Measuring their temperature is necessary to compensate for the perception defects. | System temperature monitoring | |
| Radar | Radar systems gather millions of data points every second requiring high performance and power consumption at the DSPs and MCUs, and this introduces a lot of heat. Temperature protection is required to keep them running smoothly. |
Infotainment & clusters
Over temperature plagues both low- and high-end infotainment and cluster applications. Our portfolio of sensors protects large displays, USB chargers and graphical units from damage.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head unit | Head unit displays need to reduce the brightness of the LED backlights as they heat up due to ambient or operating conditions. Monitoring the temperature allows them to alter their performance and protect the components. | ||
| Automotive external amplifier | A lot of power runs through speakers, increasing device temperature. Thermal protection is needed at the power supply, the DSP and amplifiers to protect the components and enable a premium audio experience at all volumes and operating conditions. | ||
| Automotive media hub | The compact form factor of media hubs includes minimal ventilation which increases the chances of thermal damage. Temperature threshold detection is needed to reduce power consumption and disconnect unnecessary systems when the components heat up. | Temperature threshold detection |
Hybrid, electric & powertrain systems
Electric vehicles and powertrains are becoming more dependent on thermal management. Our sensors help to ensure passenger safety and system reliability.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-board chargers (OCB) | OBCs and wireless chargers need to quickly and efficiently convert high power AC to DC which is very heat intensive. Thermal monitoring is critical in order to rapidly shut down the power transfer operation in case of over temperature scenarios. | Temperature threshold detection | |
| Inverter & motor control | Inverters need to operate at peak performance and efficiency, yet have to stay within safe thermal conditions. Accurately monitoring their temperature can take your system closer to its limits without having to scale down performance. | System temperature monitoring | |
| Battery management systems | Operating outside the temperature range of 0°C - 65°C can reduce the battery's lifetime and charge while also increasing the risk fire hazards. Monitoring the temperatures of battery cells is essential to the safety and efficiency of the vehicle. |
Body electronics & lighting
Body electronics and lighting components can heat up to dangerous temperatures if not properly monitored. Our portfolio of sensors enables autonomous protection for these systems.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCUs can be damaged from operating outside their specified temperature ranges. Diagnostic input subsystems in body control modules need temperature monitoring to protect components and prevent them from reaching dangerous temperatures. | Temperature threshold detection | ||
| Headlights | Headlights are critical for the safety of passengers at night, yet are typically the hottest lighting elements in vehicles. Temperature threshold detection can protect you LEDs by decreasing the power running through them. | System temperature monitoring | |
| Interior lighting | LED color changes with increases in temperature. It is necessary to design and compensate for these changes, and simple to do so with our temperature sensors. |
Industrial
Temperature is critical for many industrial applications for understanding environmental conditions, system health, and compensating for thermal drift. TI offers the widest breath of industrial temperature sensors ranging from ultra-high accuracy sensors that compete with RTDs, to low cost linear alternatives to NTC thermistors. Save power, board space, and time with TI Temperature Sensors.
Factory automation
With the transition to Industry 4.0, temperature sensing is critical now more than ever in factories to monitor system health and prevent system down time while maximizing the performance of motors and other sensors. Our portfolio of temperature sensors help you get there.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programmable logic controllers (PLC) & industrial PC | PLCs and IPCs need a simple and accurate solution to cold junction compensation; a highly linear solution that eliminates the complexity of designing with discrete components. | ||
| Field transmitters | Field transmitters have the critical role of providing data from sensors. Temperature monitoring is necessary to maximize their accuracy through thermal drift compensation of the sensors and support circuitry. |
Building automation
Temperature sensing is critical within building automation in order to keep homes and offices comfortable and safe. Our portfolio of sensors delivers accurate and reliable solutions to monitor environmental conditions and protects HVAC and surveillance systems.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermostats | Ambient temperature monitoring in thermostats needs to be accurate and maintain a low profile. Choosing the right sensors is needed to optimize comfort and energy costs. | Ambient temperature monitoring | |
| IP cameras & video doorbells | Video doorbells and IP cameras have compact form factors that are affected by high environmental and operating temperatures. It is essential to provide thermal compensation in order to maximize the performance across different temperature ranges, and protect the system from overheating. |
Medical
Sensors are rapidly transforming the medical world with accurate real-time data, requiring precise thermal monitoring. We help to create smarter healthcare at homes and hospitals with our ASTM E1112 compliant, ultra-compact, low power temperature sensors.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wearables & patient monitoring | When it comes to medical temperature sensing, accuracy, size, and power consumption are all of high importance. Having temperature sensor that enables unobtrusive wireless real-time patient monitoring is critical for providing an early indicator for a variety of health issues and body conditions. | Body temperature monitoring |
Personal electronics
Temperature sensing in personal electronics plays a critical role for accurate battery safety, biometrics, and personal health monitoring. TI's portfolio delivers with an offering of very low power, small, and highly accurate temperature sensors.
Consumer wearables
Consumer wearables continue to add features and demand greater performance, which produces heat. Temperature sensors are crucial for providing highly accurate health monitoring data, enabling device safety, and improving battery life.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual & augmented reality | Virtual/augmented reality devices heat up a lot because of its high computation intensive image processing. Temperature sensing is critical in these devices to maximize system performance and maintain device/operator safety. | ||
| Hearables (audio with biosensing) | Many features are packed into the small form factor of hearables which increases the heat produced by internal components. High accuracy temperature sensing is needed in order to enable health monitoring, and to protect batteries that are requiring thermal limit safety features. |
Speaker systems
Sound quality and device performance are both affected by component temperature within speakers. Our temperature sensors enable high quality audio amplifier gain compensation, environmental monitoring, and overtemperature protection.
| Application | Why monitor temperature? | Recommended temperature sensors | Design challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless speakers | Wireless speakers heat up because they require high peformance from the battery and speakers while being tightly sealed and compact. Monitoring the temperature of these components provides the insight needed to keep the device safe and operating at its intended performance. | Temperature threshold detection | |
| Smart speakers | Temperature fluctuates a lot within smart speakers based on their activity level. Measuring the temperature in and around the device enables a greater user experience as well as device performance and safety. | ||
| Sound bars | Sound bars/bases are extremely powerful devices that produce heat internally due to their high performance. It is necessary to accurately monitor temperature in order to ensure thermal safety protection without impeding performance. |