Cryogenic Sensors: Installation Techniques for Success

Interested in knowing more about how to correctly install a sensor in a cryogenic application and to avoid common installation errors? Then watch this recording of an Institute of Physics (IOP) webinar presented by Dr. Scott Courts, Lake Shore Senior Scientist.

Topics include:

• Considerations for choosing a sensor (including resistance to magnetic fields, ionizing radiation, UHV and others)
• The role of packaging and adapters for shielding, mounting, stability, and optimal thermal contact
• Considerations for sensor installation (placement, mounting method, materials, electrical connections, heat sinking, thermal contact medium, etc.)
• A look at the choices for fastening materials, wire leads, thermal mediums and adhesives

Meet the presenter

Scott Courts

Senior Scientist/Metrologist

Dr. Scott Courts is an Applications Scientist at Lake Shore and has been active in the field of cryogenics for more than 30 years. Dr. Courts received his BSc in Physics from Marshall University and a Ph.D. in Experimental Solid State Physics from The Ohio State University in 1988. While at OSU, he studied the transition to superfluid turbulence in two-fluid flow of helium-II. In 1989, Dr. Courts joined Lake Shore as a Senior Scientist in our Sensor R&D Division. In this position, much of his focus was on developing thin-film thermometer materials exhibiting high ionizing radiation tolerance and low magnetoresistance offsets for use in accelerator applications. This work led to the development of Lake Shore Cernox™ sensors. Dr. Courts then moved to Lake Shore’s manufacturing engineering group in 2001 to fill the role of Applications Scientist and work on improving sensor products, processes, and testing. He has also served as Technical Director for Lake Shore’s thermometer calibration facility and worked to extend the calibration range capabilities to its current 20 mK lower limit and up to 900 K at the upper end. Currently, he serves as a metrologist/scientist with the responsibility of maintaining Lake Shore’s traceable thermometry scales. A member of the American Physical Society and the Cryogenic Society of America, Dr. Courts has published more than 35 articles on cryogenics/thermometry and served as a reviewer for various journals and proceedings. He has also taught short courses on cryogenic thermometry and instrumentation in both public and private settings for the past 20 years.

---

---

Select Publications

Cernox™ Resistance Temperature Sensors for High Energy Applications
S. S. Courts, Lake Shore Cryotronics Inc. white paper, March 2015.

A Standardized Cryogenic Temperature Sensors for Aerospace Applications
S. S. Courts, Cryogenics, 64 (2014), pp. 248 – 254 (Presented at the 2013 Space Cryogenics Workshop, Girdwood, AK, 23 – 25 June 2013). 

---