Question

The Type K thermocouple has a sensitivity of about 41 uV /°C, i.e. for each degree difference in the junction temperature, the output changes by 41 microVolts • If you have a 16-bit ADC, what is the smallest temperature change you can detect if the ADC range is 10 V?

Answer 1

ΔTmin = 3.72 °C

Step-by-step explanation:

With a 16-bit ADC, you get a resolution of
`2^(16)=65536` steps. This means that the ADC will divide the maximum 10V input into 65536 steps:

ΔVmin = 10V / 65536 = 152.59μV

Using the thermocouple sensitiviy we can calculate the smallest temperature change that 152.59μV represents on the ADC:

`\Delta Tmin = (\Delta Vmin)/(41 \mu V/C)= 3.72 C`