A highly thermostable In2O3/ITO thin film thermocouple prepared via screen printing for high temperature measurements

Abstract

An In2O3/ITO thin film thermocouple was prepared via screen printing. Glass additives were added to improve the sintering process and to increase the density of the In2O3/ITO films. The surface and cross-sectional images indicate that both the grain size and densification of the ITO and In2O3 films increased with the increase in annealing time. The thermoelectric voltage of the In2O3/ITO thermocouple was 53.5 mV at 1270 °C at the hot junction. The average Seebeck coefficient of the thermocouple was calculated as 44.5 µV/°C. The drift rate of the In2O3/ITO thermocouple was 5.44 °C/h at a measuring time of 10 h at 1270 °C.