Thermal insolation sensor with thick/thin film thermopile

Specially calibrated silicon solar cells or thermopile pyranometers are used for measurement of solar irradiance under natural sunlight. This paper presents steady state and dynamic properties of thermal insolation sensors where one arm of thermocouples is made from PdAg-based thick film conductor and the second ones is prepared by magnetron sputtering of semiconductive Ge-based alloys. Such combination increased sensor sensitivity 30 times in comparison with thick film PdAg-Ag thermocouple in the case of alumina substrate. For LTCC substrate the sensitivity is even 55 times larger. The insolation sensor made on LTCC has approximately 7-10 times larger thermal electric power E/sub T/ but at the same time two times larger thermal time constant than such a sensor on alumina. Therefore the effect of simple passive PD correction element on dynamic and steady-state properties of analysed insolation sensor is also presented.