MATCHING THE RESISTIVITY OF SI-NB THIN-FILM THERMOMETERS TO THE EXPERIMENTAL TEMPERATURE-RANGE

The useful temperature range of semiconducting resistive thermometers is limited by declining sensitivity at high temperature and inconvenie ntly high resistivity at low temperatures. The useful temperature rang e of sputtered thin film Si:Nb resistance thermometers is controlled b y the Nb concentration. We have developed a simple technique for contr olling the Nb concentration during the fabrication process. We describ e an extremely sensitive family of thermometers with useful temperatur e ranges that overlap and span temperatures from below 1 K to above 45 0 K. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.