A millivolt source for temperature programming of laboratory furnaces

Abstract

Two simple, inexpensive programmable millivolt sources are described which can be used in series with a thermocouple sensing element of a furnace controller for linear rate-controlled raising or lowering of a furnace temperature. The output rates of the programmers are set for typical applications such as the controlled growth of III-V compounds (GaAs, GaP, etc.) by liquid phase epitaxy for which normally Pt-Pt 10% Rh sensing thermocouples are used.