Experiences in Calibrating Industrial Platinum Resistance Sensors Between − 196 °C and 80 °C

Recently, a requirement arose to provide sensors for measuring the temperature of a substantial reference blackbody cavity to operate in vacuum over a temperature range from − 100 °C to 80 °C (~ 170 K to ~ 350 K), with an additional capability to operate at ~− 170 °C (~ 100 K) as a point of near-zero radiance. Several 100 Ω industrial platinum resistance sensors (Pt100) are required for control purposes in order to establish the temperature uniformity of the blackbody structure and its surrounding aluminum-alloy isothermal shield. These sensors should remain stable within the uncertainties of 0.03 °C (k = 3) ideally for 20 years. This paper discusses the testing and calibration of two types of industrial Pt100 resistors, including checking the interchangeability of sensors from a given batch, and the methods of interpolation over the temperature range. It is concluded that the sensors can meet the requirements provided that they have been individually tested, and that there is a degree of duplication of sensors so that long-term changes can be detected. The calibration data could be fitted by cubic or quartic equations expressing temperature as a function of resistance (or resistance ratio), this being simpler than the ITS-90 formulation and more convenient than using the (technically obsolete) Callendar–Van Dusen equation.