Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: Ambient temperature control Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2024 13:22:13 +1000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 56 Message-ID: <v5vrpa$1flgu$1@dont-email.me> References: <v5svtq$olhq$1@dont-email.me> <v5u3le$1209c$1@dont-email.me> <88057455-8c1e-a565-6098-7c48928fea04@electrooptical.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2024 05:22:19 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="589763811335c0d4a61fb5ec4affa9f2"; logging-data="1562142"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19TAHUxin3XhIF0qsP96rzy8hfQhPEgbj8=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:f3S0w1UXVSIcQ9iV1W6HFpg1CJE= X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 240701-2, 1/7/2024), Outbound message Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: <88057455-8c1e-a565-6098-7c48928fea04@electrooptical.net> Bytes: 3838 On 2/07/2024 2:24 am, Phil Hobbs wrote: > On 2024-07-01 07:24, Martin Brown wrote: >> On 01/07/2024 02:14, Don Y wrote: >>> Assuming you can keep a device in its "normal operating (temperature) >>> range", how advantageous is it (think MTBF) to drive that ambient >>> down? And, is there a sweet spot (as there is a cost to lowering the >>> temperature)? >> >> There can be for some high performance low level OPamps. Deliberately >> running them as cold as is allowed helps take the LF noise floor down >> and by more than you would predict from Johnson noise. ISTR there was >> a patent for doing this back in the 1980's. Prior to that they tended >> to heat the front end to obtain temperature stability and low drift. > > BITD you tended to get popcorn noise from ions migrating around the > surface and in deposited (rather than thermal) oxide. Cooling helped > that a lot. Nowadays processes are generally clean enough that you > don't get a lot of mobile ions. >> >> https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/4883957 >> >> Made possible with the advent of decent solid state TECs. >>> >>> Also, is there any advantage to minimizing the hysteresis between >>> the ACTUAL operating temperature extremes in such a control strategy >>> (given that lower hysteresis usually comes at an increased cost)? >> >> Depends how temperature sensitive the thing is that you are >> protecting. The example I recall they were aiming for medium term >> stable 6 sig fig measurements with the lowest possible noise. > > You don't want to use a thermostat with TECs anyway--they die very > rapidly, especially the soft-solder ones (Laird/Melcor). Anybody who tries to use bang-bang control with a TEC will run into that. TEC's are non-linear devices, and work best when the current through them doesn't vary much. Sloman A.W., Buggs P., Molloy J., and Stewart D. “A microcontroller-based driver to stabilise the temperature of an optical stage to 1mK in the range 4C to 38C, using a Peltier heat pump and a thermistor sensor” Measurement Science and Technology, 7 1653-64 (1996) used a TEC, and the product didn't die in the field, or not a least over the roughly ten years it was on the market. My boss had had a run in with bang-bang control of TECs in another (earlier) product, and that hadn't gone well, so we were well aware of the problem (and the paper does go into it, briefly). -- Bill Sloman, Sydney -- This email has been checked for viruses by Norton antivirus software. www.norton.com