Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059

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Measurement
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Voltage divider resistance for high-resolution of the thermistor

temperature measurement
Jongwon Kim a, Jong Dae Kim b,⇑
a
BiomedLab Co., Ltd., 7F, Gayang-Dong, Gangseo-Gu, 143-813 Seoul, Republic of Korea
b
Division of Information and Communication Engineering, Hallym University, 1 Okchon-dong, Chunchon 200-702, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: When measuring temperature with a voltage divider, and changing the variation of the
Received 4 November 2010 thermistor resistance from the temperature to the voltage, the divider resistance greatly
Accepted 17 August 2011 impacts the resolution of each ADC step. This work presents a method for determining
Available online 27 August 2011
the divider resistance to minimize the resolution’s maximum value in a given temperature
range. Since the function of the resolution strongly depends on the derivative of the therm-
Keywords: istor resistance, we also investigated the effect on the resolution when the derivative was
Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC)
calculated by forward and backward finite differences and the Stein–Hart calibration equa-
thermistor
Temperature measurement
tion. The results showed that the resolution’s maximum calculated by the three methods
Voltage divider resistance had only a 5% difference, for the four types of commonly used NTC thermistors. Also, we
High-resolution demonstrated that the divider resistance which minimizes the interval resolution’s maxi-
mum can be determined by the thermistor resistance and its derivative at each end of the
temperature range.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction resistor. The divided voltage is digitized by the ADC, and

Compared with many temperature measuring sensors,
the NTC thermistor has greater sensitivity, faster thermal
response, flexible sizes and shapes, and low cost. It also
has a 10-fold higher temperature coefficient than platinum
sensors which are used to measure the temperature pre-
cisely. Due to these advantages, the NTC thermistor has
been adopted by the biomedical field, where only a limited
range of temperatures are of interest [1–3].
While a bridge circuit or voltage divider is usually used
to measure the temperature with an NTC thermistor, vari-
ous linearization methods have been developed to handle
their highly nonlinear behaviors [4,5]. However, we can
also obtain reasonably good resolution using a simple volt-
age divider circuit, due to the thermistor’s high sensitivity.
The voltage divider circuit converts the variation in the
thermistor resistance to a variation in voltage, by dividing
a constant voltage with the thermistor and a reference
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 33 248 2320; fax: +82 33 242 2524.
E-mail address: kimjd@hallym.ac.kr (J.D. Kim).
the linearization is obtained in the digital form [1]. Using
the ADC with high resolution enables us to gain sufficient
temperature resolution; however, there is a decrease in
system speed and an increase in cost. Eventually, it is nec-
essary to determine the minimum ADC resolution for
achieving the required temperature resolution [1].
When the resistance variation is changed to a voltage
variation using a voltage divider, the amount of the varia-
tion depends on both the divider resistance and the tem-
perature. Consequently, the temperature resolution is a
function of both the temperature and the resistance of
the divider; thus, knowledge of the divider’s resistance is
required to obtain the optimum resolution. To date, there
has been no proposed quantitative method for determining
the divider resistance, although previous work has pro-
vided the subjective means to do so [1].
When a temperature range is known for a specific appli-
cation, the maximum resolution per ADC step in the range
is key for determining the ADC bit width, because the
resolution for each temperature in the range would be
the same or smaller than the maximum resolution.

0263-2241/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2011.08.004
 J. Kim, J.D. Kim / Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059 2055

Therefore, it is useful to determine the divider resistance f ðx; tÞ, and the maximum resolution at the temperature
that minimizes the maximum resolution in that tempera- range [a, b], gðxÞ, can be expressed as follows:
ture range [1]. Meanwhile, the resolution at any tempera-
ture is related to the derivative of the resistance
1 ½x þ rðtÞ2
f ðx; tÞ ¼  ; ð2Þ
temperature to the sensitivity; therefore, a method to esti- 2n xr 0 ðtÞ
mate the derivative is needed. Since the thermistor manu-
facturers provide the resistance values in units of 1 °C, we gðxÞ ¼ maxff ðx; tÞg; ð3Þ
t2½a;b
can use the one-degree finite difference for estimating the
differentiation. We also use several calibration equations where r 0 ðtÞ represents the derivative of the thermistor
to estimate the derivative, since none of them can provide resistance to temperature.
the true value of the differentiation. But, as we will present The purpose of our work is to obtain the voltage divider
in the next section, the bounds of the derivative can be resistance x that minimizes gðxÞ: i.e., the maximum resolu-
determined knowing that the resistance of the thermistor, tion at the given temperature range, as provided in Eq. (3).
and its first and second differentiation value, decrease pro- To understand the behavior of gðxÞ, we need to determine
portionally to the temperature. Our presented method uses changes in the thermistor resistance due to temperature,
the above properties to determine the divider resistance along with the change in the derivative. The thermistor
needed to minimize the maximum resolutions per step, resistance dependence on the temperature changes
and we also propose the bounds for the estimated divider follows:
resistance and the maximum resolution.
  
1 1
In the following section, we demonstrate the method to rðtÞ ¼ r0 exp b  ; ð4Þ
t t0
determine the divider resistance, and derive the bounds for
the true maximum resolution. Section 3 presents simula- where r 0 is the thermistor resistance at absolute tempera-
tion results for four types of commercial thermistors, and ture t 0 , and b is the thermistor material constant.
conclusions are provided in Section 4. In Eq. (4), b changes slowly with temperature and has a
sufficiently high value, enabling us to approximate the
thermistor’s derivative value as follows:
2. The divider resistance to minimize the maximum
resolution for a given temperature range br
r 0 ðtÞ ffi  : ð5Þ
t2
Fig. 1 shows a schematic for a circuit that measures the
From Eqs. (2) and (5), the resolution per step f ðx; tÞ
temperature using a voltage divider with an NTC thermis-
takes the following form:
tor. As the temperature increases, the resistance decreases,
resulting in an increase in the divider voltage. The ratio of 1 t 2 ½x þ rðtÞ2
f ðx; tÞ ffi : ð6Þ
the ADC bias voltage and the input voltage uðx; tÞ satisfies 2n bxr
the following:
x f ðx; tÞ is determined by linearly combining t2 =r, t2 , and
uðx; tÞ ¼ ; 1 6 uðx; tÞ 6 1; ð1Þ
x þ rðtÞ t2 r with respect to t. t2 =r and t 2 r are in the form of
t2 e1=t , which is convex excluding the break point at
where rðtÞ, x, and uðx; tÞ represent the resistance of the
t ¼ 0. In other words, all three functions are convex for
thermistor at absolute temperature t, the resistance of
any positive t. Therefore, the sum of the functions is also
the voltage divider, and the divided voltage at t,
convex, and the maximum exists at the domain boundary
respectively.
[6]. Eventually, the maximum resolution gðxÞ at a given
If we linearly digitize the constant voltage V using an n-
temperature range can be written as:
bit ADC, the resolution per step at a given temperature
gðxÞ ¼ maxff ðx; aÞ; f ðx; bÞg: ð7Þ

V Since f ðx; tÞ is convex for x, gðxÞ is also convex, indicat-

ing there is only one minimum value at the intersection of
signal processor f ðx; aÞ and f ðx; bÞ [6]. Then, the divider resistance x0 that
minimizes the maximum of the resolution in [a, b] will sat-
isfy the following equation:
r(t) ½x0 þ rðaÞ2 ½x0 þ rðbÞ2
y ¼ :
u(x,t) x0 r0 ðaÞ x0 r 0 ðbÞ
ADC
Eventually, the divider resistance x0 that minimizes the
x maximum of the resolution can be expressed as a function
of the thermistor resistances and their derivatives at the
boundaries of the given range.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
prðaÞ  rðbÞ r0 ðbÞ
x0 ¼ ; 0<p¼ < 1: ð8Þ
1p r 0 ðaÞ
Fig. 1. Temperature measurement circuit using an NTC thermistor.
2056 J. Kim, J.D. Kim / Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059
As shown by Eq. (5), r 0 ðtÞ also decreases monotonically,
satisfying 0 < p < 1. The maximum resolution will be the
resolution at each end temperature, as shown here:
min gðxÞ ¼ gðx0 Þ ¼ f ðx0 ; aÞ ¼ f ðx0 ; bÞ:
x according to the backward and forward differences, and
Since the optimal divider resistance and the minimum
of its maximum resolution, expressed in Eqs. (8) and (9),
are functions of derivatives, we need to estimate the value
from the differentiation. Since thermistor manufacturers
provide the resistance value in 1 °C units, we can use a
one-degree finite difference or various types of calibration
equations for the differentiation estimate, although we
cannot obtain a precise value. Instead, we can obtain the
bounds of the minimum at the optimal resistance, by using
the property of the thermistor’s R–T Eq. (4). First, we can
approximate the optimal divider resistance x0 through for-
ward and backward finite difference. As the absolute value
of the derivative of the thermistor temperature–resistance
function monotonically decreases, as shown in Eq. (5), the
second derivative r 00 ðtÞ also decreases monotonically.
brðb þ 2tÞ
r 00 ðtÞ ffi : ð10Þ
t4
Therefore, the following absolute inequalities are
satisfied:
jrf ðaÞj > jr 0 ðaÞj > jr b ðaÞj; jr f ðbÞj > jr 0 ðbÞj > jr b ðbÞj;
00
> r ðbÞ;
where rf and rb are the forward and backward differences,
respectively.
Let pf and pb be calculated p in (8), using the forward
and backward difference, respectively. Then, the following
inequalities are also satisfied:
r 0 ðbÞ r b ðbÞ þ r 00 ðbÞ r b ðbÞ r 0 ðbÞ r f ðbÞ  r00 ðbÞ
ffi < ; ffi
r0 ðaÞ rb ðaÞ þ r 00 ðaÞ r b ðaÞ r 0 ðaÞ r f ðaÞ  r00 ðaÞ
r f ðbÞ
> ; pf < p < pb :
r f ðaÞ
Since x0 in Eq. (8) increases monotonically with respect
to p, the optimal resistances xf and xb obtained through the
finite differences also satisfy the following inequality:
xf > xo > xb :
On the other hand, if we set the acquired functions by
applying rf or rb in place of r 0 in f ðx; tÞ, and set gðxÞ to be
ff , fb , g f , and g b ; then as f decreases monotonically and is
inversely proportional to r 0 , the following relations are
satisfied:
ff ðx; tÞ P f ðx; tÞ P fb ðx; tÞ; 8t;
g f ðxÞ P gðxÞ P g b ðxÞ; 8x:
From the above inequalities, the optimal resistance
minimizing g f and g b will be xf and xb , which are used in
the following:
g f ðxf Þ > gðxo Þ > g b ðxb Þ:
Consequently, the optimal divider resistance which
minimizes the maximum resolution in the given tempera-
ture interval, as well as the maximum resolution at that
resistance, has the bounds shown in Eqs. (11) and (12).
It is impossible to calculate the interval maximum reso-
lution gðxÞ precisely, because it requires the true value of the
derivative. However, if the derivative of the thermistor
ð9Þ resistance obtained by the calibration equation exists
the first and second derivatives monotonically decrease as
in Eqs. (5) and (10), the following is also considered true:
xf > xc > xb ; ð13Þ
g f ðxf Þ > g c ðxc Þ > g b ðxb Þ; ð14Þ
where g c ðxc Þ and xc are the interval maximum resolution
and the resistance minimizing it, respectively; both are
calculated by the calibration equation.
The derivatives from the calibration equation can be
considered to be reasonably close to the true value if the
bounding interval of Eqs. (13) and (14) is sufficiently small.
In this work, the interval maximum resolution, expressed
as Eq. (3), is calculated as the derivative from the backward
and forward difference and the calibration equation, and
verifies whether the calculated minimum satisfies Eqs.
(13) and (14). Also, the optimal resistance calculated using
Eq. (8) with the thermistor resistance and its derivative at
each end point of the temperature interval are compared.
r 00 ðaÞ The notations rb , rf , and rc used in the next section repre-
sent the derivatives calculated by the backward and for-
ward finite difference and the Stein-Hart equation,
respectively. The corresponding step resolution f , the max-
imum resolution g, and the optimal divider resistance cal-
culated with the boundary values xB are similarly notated
as follows:
xB are notated similarly as follows:
1 ½x þ rðtÞ2
fi ðx; tÞ ¼  ; i ¼ b; c; f ;
2n xri ðtÞ
 
1
g i ðxi Þ ¼ min  n maxffi ðx; tÞg ; i ¼ b; c; f ;
x 2 t2½a;b
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
p rðaÞ  rðbÞ r i ðbÞ
xBi ¼ i ; pi ¼ ; i ¼ b; c; f :
1  pi r i ðaÞ
ð11Þ
3. Experiments and results
For the experiment, four types of thermistors were cho-
sen that are interchangeable within ±0.2 °C, and they were
provided with 1 °C unit resistances. The chosen sensors
were: 44006RC (formerly YSI temperature Co. product) of
Measurement Specialties Co.; 10K4A1W (formerly Beta-
THERM Co. product); B57863 (whole product name:
B57863S0103F040) from EPCOS Co.; and PT103J2 of US
sensor.
The calibration equation was used to confirm the ten-
ð12Þ dency of the first and second derivatives. Table 1 shows
the standard deviation of the error and its maximum, when
the Stein-Hart (S-H), Hoge-2 (4 parameter), and Hoge-3 (5
parameter) were fitted to the data of the temperature–
resistance table within 0–100 °C [3]. All approximations
showed an error of no more than 50 mK. In this work,
 J. Kim, J.D. Kim / Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059 2057

Table 1 1
Standard deviation of the error and the maximum error of the three
calibration equations at 0–100 °C (unit: mK). 0.8

(rc -rb)/(rf -r b)
S–H Hoge-2 Hoge-5
0.6
Std Max Std Max Std Max
0.4
44006RC 5.23 15.02 4.43 11.82 4.13 13.99
10K3A1AW 4.72 17.07 4.81 18.53 4.70 17.35
B57863 8.01 22.68 6.70 22.50 6.61 25.77
0.2
PT103J2 6.94 24.43 7.03 24.94 5.26 19.68
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
o
temperature ( C)
the Stein–Hart equation, which had the smallest maximum
Fig. 4. Relative position of the derivative calculated through the S–H
error, was used to approximately express the tendency of
equation
 to the  backward and forward difference
the derivatives of the four thermistors. c ðtÞr b ðtÞ
q ¼ rrf ðtÞr 44006RC .
b ðtÞ ;
Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate the transition of the first and sec-
ond derivatives according to the temperature of the
44006RC thermistor. The same tendencies were also ob-
positions at 94°, 95°, and 98°. This was because both the
served for the other two calibration equations. As predicted
backward and forward differences were the same as the
through Eqs. (5) and (10), the first and second derivatives
derivative from the calibration equation.
decreased monotonically with the temperature.
Fig. 5 illustrates the function of the interval maximum
We also investigated the relationship between the
resolution with respect to the divider resistance, when
derivative calculated through the calibration equation
applying the three speculated derivatives of thermistor
and the finite differences in 1 °C units. Fig. 4 shows the rel-
44006RC and the position of the divider resistances that
ative position of the derivative from the calibration equa-
minimizes them. As foretold, the inequalities (13) and
tion to the forward and backward differences. It can be
(14) were satisfied. Tables 3 and 4 provide the minimum
observed that the position of the derivative obtained from
of the interval maximum resolution, as calculated by the
the calibration equation was in the middle of the finite dif-
three speculated derivatives on the temperature intervals
ferences. This central position of the derivatives occurs on
[40,95] and [0,100] and the divider resistances that mini-
average for all four thermistors (Table 2). The only temper-
mize them. The definitions of the relative variations below
ature exception was ‘10K4A1W’, which had minimum
were established to illustrate their differences:
maxðxb ; xc ; xf Þ  minðxb ; xc ; xf Þ
dx ¼  100;
minðxb ; xc ; xf Þ
0

-500
r' (t)

Table 2
Relative position of the approximate expression through the S–H equation
-1000
to the backward and forward difference (unit: %).

44006RC 10K3A1AW B57863 PT103J2

-1500
0 20 40 60 80 100 Dev. from Mean 49 47 49 50
xb
temperature ( o C) Max 84 85 76 80
Min 18 0 7 26
Fig. 2. Derivative of the thermistor resistance (S–H equation, 44006RC).

12000
40 gf (x) x
10000 f

gb(x)
g(x) (mK)

8000
r'' (t)

6000 gc (x)

4000 xc
xb
35
2000

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 10
3.1
10
3.2
10
3.3
o
temperature ( C) x (Ω)

Fig. 3. Second derivative of the thermistor resistance (S–H equation, Fig. 5. Trend of the interval maximum resolution according to the divider
44006RC). resistance (44006RC).
2058 J. Kim, J.D. Kim / Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059

Table 3
Minimums of the interval maximum resolution of the temperature interval [40,95] and the optimum divider resistances (unit: X, mK, %).

Interval Divider resistance (kX) Min. of max. resolution (mK)

[40 95] xb xc xf dx (%) gb(xb) gc(xc) gf(xf) dg (%)
44006RC 1.634 1.646 1.661 1.7 36.6 37.4 38.1 3.9
10K4A1AW 1.643 1.646 1.721 4.8 36.7 37.4 37.2 1.3
B57863 1.464 1.470 1.472 0.5 35.1 35.8 36.5 4.0
PT103J2 1.460 1.467 1.474 1.0 35.2 35.8 36.6 4.2

Table 4
Minimum of the interval maximum resolution calculated by three speculated derivatives of the temperature interval [0,100], and its minimizing divider
resistance (unit: X, mK, %).

Interval Divider resistance (kX) Min. of max. resolution (mK)

[0 100] xb xc xf dx (%) gb(xb) gc(xc) gf(xf) dg (%)
44006RC 3.387 3.404 3.422 1.0 55.7 56.7 57.7 3.7
10K4A1AW 3.393 3.404 3.410 0.5 55.4 56.7 58.1 4.9
B57863 3.211 3.237 3.256 1.4 57.1 58.3 59.6 4.4
PT103J2 3.196 3.235 3.261 2.0 57.1 58.3 59.6 4.3

80 quently, the divider resistance minimizing the interval

70 maximum resolution could be calculated with the deriva-
tive and the thermistor resistance at the boundary of the
g(x) (mK)

60 given interval.
Fig. 6 demonstrates the difference in the interval maxi-
50
mum resolution when the divider resistance was improp-
40 erly selected. The ‘+’ marks show the interval maximum
resolutions when the divider resistances were selected as
3
10 the thermistor resistances at the boundary temperatures.
x (Ω) If we selected the thermistor resistance at 95° (one of the
temperature boundaries) as the divider resistance, then
Fig. 6. Trend of the interval maximum resolution according to the divider
resistance (+: x = r(40), r(95), thermistor: 44006RC, temperature interval:
the interval maximum resolution was two times greater
[40,95], derivative: from S–H equation). than that with the optimum divider resistance.

maxðg b ðxb Þ; g c ðxc Þ; g f ðxf ÞÞ  minðg b ðxb Þ; g c ðxc Þ; g f ðxf ÞÞ 4. Discussion

dg ¼
minðg b ðxb Þ; g c ðxc Þ; g f ðxf ÞÞ
A method was proposed to minimize the resolution per
 100:
ADC step at a given temperature interval using the therm-
istor resistance and its derivative at the boundary. It was
The minimum of the interval maximum resolution of
shown that the one-degree finite differences provided the
the thermistor 10K4A1AW on the temperature interval
lower and upper bounds to the optimum divider resis-
[40,95] did not satisfy the inequality (14). But since the
tance, where the maximum resolution over the given tem-
disparity of the minimum was only 1.3%, similar results
perature interval was minimized. The Stein–Hart
would be observed with any derivative. Generally, the
calibration equation can be employed for the derivative
minimum of the interval maximum resolution using any
estimation, using the results that the optimized divider
of the three derivatives gives a similar result, with a differ-
resistance resided within the bounds in most cases. But
ence less than 5%.
since the variation of the interval maximum resolution cal-
The relative deviation indicated below was calculated
culated with the backward and forward difference was less
to compare the minimum resistances obtained with the
than 5%, it would be more thorough to use the centered fi-
thermistor resistances and the derivatives at the ends of
nite difference instead of the calibration equation.
the interval, as well as those shown in Tables 3 and 4.
The estimation and effect of the derivative of the therm-
istor resistance with respect to the temperature at any
jxi  xBi j
ri ¼ ; i ¼ b; c; f : point was also investigated. Using the same method, the
xi
divider resistance minimizing the interval average resolu-
The relative deviation showed no more than 0.1% with- tion can be calculated. This method could also be used
out distinguishing the temperature interval, types of the for any research investigating the temperature sensitivity
thermistors, and the estimate of the derivative. Conse- of the NTC thermistor.
 J. Kim, J.D. Kim / Measurement 44 (2011) 2054–2059
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Basic Science
Research Program through the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology (No. 2010-0015951).
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