Non-contact temperature measurement at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)

ABSTRACT

At the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the National Metrology Institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, the traceability of non-contact temperature measurement to the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90) is realised without gaps over a temperature range from −170°C to 3000°C. In this paper the main calibration facilities for the calibration of radiation thermometers at temperatures above 1000°C and measurement of spectral radiance, the calibration of radiation thermometers at temperatures below 1000°C, the calibration of infrared thermographic cameras together with a method developed at PTB to correct the non-uniform response of sensor arrays, the calibration of infrared hyperspectral imagers for remote sensing, and emissivity measurement for industry and remote sensing are described. These facilities are tailored for different temperature ranges and different spectral ranges to meet the demand of industry and research for precise, practical non-contact temperature measurement.

KEYWORDS:

• Metrology
• thermography
• radiometry
• radiation thermometry
• calibration

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

I. Müller

I. Müller studied experimental physics at Humboldt-University in Berlin and received his PhD at Humboldt-University in Berlin in 2013. Since 2009, he has been working at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin, the national metrology institute in Germany, as a researcher in the department ‘Detector Radiometry and Radiation Thermometry’.  He has more than 11 years’ experience in the fields absolute detector-based radiometry, nano-optics, and radiation thermometry in the temperature range below 1000°C.

A. Adibekyan

A. Adibekyan is a senior scientist with more than 10 years of experience in radiation thermometry and radiometry. His current focus lies in the fields of emissivity measurement and radiometric traceability of remote sensing. He has been working at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB, Germany) since 2010 and received his Ph.D. in physics in 2016.

K. Anhalt

K. Anhalt studied experimental physics in Marburg, Manchester and Berlin and obtained a PhD from the Technische Universität Berlin in 2008.He is a researcher at the Physikalisch- Technische Bundesanstalt, the national metrology institute in Germany, in the division ‘Detector Radiometry and Radiation Thermometry’. He has more than 18 years experience in the fields of radiometry, radiation thermometry above 1000°C, high-temperature fixed-points, and emissivity measurements. He is co-opted member of the CCT working group on Radiation Thermometry for his expertise in high-temperature fixed-point research and absolute radiometric temperature measurement.

C. Baltruschat

C. Baltruschat received a graduate engineer from from Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany since 2010, he is working  as graduate engineer in the working group high-temperature radiation thermometry of the PTB.

B. Gutschwager

B. Gutschwager works as graduate engineer in the working group infrared radiation thermometry of the PTB since 1991. He was responsible for the low temperature radiation thermometry until the year 2018.

S. König

S. König received B.E. (2016) in microsystem technology and optical technologies from FH Brandenburg and M.E. (2017) in photonic from TH Wildau, Germany. Since 2017, he has been worked as a Ph.D. student at the PTB in the working group infrared radiation thermometry.

E. Kononogova

E. Kononogova joined PTB in 2017 as a scientist and since 2019 as a Ph.D student.She received her B.S. and M.S. from Moscow State Institute of Radioengineering, Electronics and Automation (MIREA), Technical University, Moscow, Russia. At PTB she is working on determination of optical properties in the infrared spectral range.

C. Monte

C. Monte is a senior scientist with long term experience in optics and optical spectroscopy. He is the head of the working group ‘Infrared Radiation Thermometry’ and responsible for radiometry and radiation thermometry under vacuum as well as for the emissivity measurement facilities in air and under vacuum. He is the German representative in the CCT Task Group for Environment (CCT-TG-Env) and CCT representative in the WMO Task Team on Radiation References.

M. Reiniger

M. Reiniger received the B. Eng and M. Eng. in applied physics and medical engineering from Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany, He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Augsburg, Germany. His current research focus on the improvement of the traceability of remote sensing measurements based on radiation thermometric or radiometric methods in the NIR and MIR. He has more than 5 years of experience as a scientist in radiation thermometry and radiometry.

S. Schiller

S. Schiller studied industrial electronic in Eisleben (Germany) and received a graduate engineer (1990). In 1991 he joined the PTB the National Metrology Institute of Germany. His main field of work is the technical development for various setups in optical measurements (reflectometry, photometry, radiation thermometry).In 1996 he joined to the working group of radiation thermometry in Berlin for high temperature measurements.

D. R. Taubert

D. R. Taubert received the diploma (1996) in technical physics from the Technical University in Munich, Germany and Ph.D. (2003) in physics from the Technical University in Berlin, Germany. He is presently a senior scientist and the head of the working group ‘High-temperature scale’ at the national metrology institute of Germany, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), having more than 20 years experience in detector-/source-based radiometry and radiation thermometry. At PTB, he is responsible for the realization and dissemination of the spectral radiance, the spectral irradiance responsivity and the radiation temperature scale above 1000°C. He is a member of various technical committees within the standardization bodies DIN and VDI.

D. Urban

D. Urban received B. Eng. (2012) and M. Eng. (2014) in Applied Physics - Medical Engeneering from Beuth Hochschule für Technik, Berlin Germany. He is a researcher at PTB since 2014 and started his PhD work in 2016 in cooperation with Technische Universität Berlin. His main field of interest is the dynamic measurement of emissivity and specific heat at high temperatures above 1000 K.

J. Hollandt

J. Hollandt, head of the department ‘Detector Radiometry and Radiation Thermometry’ has considerable experience in the fields of radiometry and radiation thermometry. He is the German representative in the CCT Working Group for Non-Contact Thermometry (CCT-WG-NCTh) and chairs the VDI Committee ‘Applied Radiation Thermometry’ and the IEC subgroups on ‘Radiation Thermometry’ and ‘Thermal Imagers’. He has participated in several space projects and has been awarded the Karl-Scheel-Preisof the Physical Society of Berlin for solar radiometry with the ESA space mission SOHO.