Description of main sensors

The thermometric measurement chain is built around the central sensing element, so that the primary signal is easy to evaluate, faithful over time and with respect to disturbances, and representative. Many physico-chemical properties evolve with temperature, and are used to identify the "temperature" parameter. It is preferable for the chosen property to change rapidly with temperature and/or to be easily measured with a high degree of precision, by electrical measurement for example. A priori, any variable that changes with temperature can be used, particularly in very specific, adapted methods. This has led to a certain diversity of language in the names given to the corresponding instruments: thermometers, pyrometers, thermomanometers, thermistors, thermocouples, etc.

In the following enumeration, references to specialized articles in the present treatise are...