Calibration of quartz tuning fork temperature sensors

This paper presents the results from investigations of thermal sensitivity, thermal response time and long-term stability of a newly miniaturized design of thermal sensitive quartz tuning fork resonator working at flexural mode with ZY-cut at fundamental frequency of 32 kHz. Special attention is given to the methodology and equipment for calibration of quartz tuning fork temperature sensor. To obtain accuracy better than 0.05degC, quartz tuning temperature sensors require calibration. We have figured out that the single point calibration methodology of quartz tuning fork temperature sensor for some applications, where low cost calibrated sensors are necessary. By applying the smart sensor concept, the calibration curve can be stored in the Transducer Electronics Datasheet. After temperature calibration, the quartz tuning fork temperature sensor measurement accuracy can reach 0.05degC with a resolution of 0.01degC over an operating range of -40degC to 140 degC.