Thermistor based sensors
Modern high accuracy thermistors have several advantages for recording environmental temperatures. They are sensitive generating large resistance changes for small changes in temperatures this means that the attached electronics can be less sensitive and therefore less 'expensive'. Thermocouples can measure temperature over a greater range but are generally less accurate in ambient temperatures, platinum based sensors provide the best accuracy but they are expensive and require an expensive 3 or 4-wire solution for greatest accuracy. Thermistors are popular in research and in medical applications, e.g as electronic medical thermometers. The thermistors themsleves are small and relatively robust ours come either mounted in a waterproof stainless steel tube or we can supply unmounted thermistors for you to make your own sensors. These unmounted thermistors are only 2.5mm. across so can measure temperature in fairly small spaces.