Sensors and Actuators: A.

Physical 331 (2021) 113051

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Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

Multipoint temperature measurement using serially connected

resistor–capacitor parallel circuits by impedance spectroscopy ]]
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⁎
Runze Mao , Masashi Kishimoto, Hiroshi Iwai
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8540, Japan

a r t i cl e i nfo a bstr ac t

Article history:
Received 9 June 2021
Received in revised form 11 August 2021
Accepted 18 August 2021
Available online 21 August 2021
Keywords:
Serially connected sensors
Resistor–capacitor parallel circuit
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
Resistance temperature detector
Multipoint temperature measurement
In this work, we aim to develop a novel measurement methodology using serially connected re­
sistor–capacitor (RC) parallel circuits by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The advantage of
the proposed methodology is that temperature at multiple points can be determined in a single mea­
surement with fewer connected cables and a flexible assembly compared with conventional approaches
such as those using thermocouples or resistance temperature detectors (RTDs). In the proposed metho­
dology, multiple RC parallel circuits are used, each of which connects an RTD to a capacitor in parallel. Four
experiments are conducted, i.e., single, double, triple, and quadruple RC circuits, to verify the feasibility of
the proposed methodology at temperatures of 290–360 K. With the proposed methodology, we can suc­
cessfully determine multipoint temperature using the serially connected sensors in a single measurement.
The accuracy of the proposed method estimated from conventional RTD measurement results is confirmed
to be 0.7 K in the temperature range tested. The proposed method can be applied to profile the temperature
of electrochemical devices that operate at relatively low temperatures, such as lithium-ion batteries.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction temperature of the measured object. For example, there is an in­

Since temperature is one of the fundamental thermodynamic
properties, it is of significance to understand and measure it. Various
methods are available for temperature measurement based on
multiple principles, which can be generally divided into invasive,
semi-invasive, and non-invasive methods. Among various methods,
the use of thermocouples [1,2] and resistance temperature detectors
(RTDs) [3,4], and infrared (IR) thermography [5,6] are widely used in
industries and fundamental research studies when temperature in­
formation is required.
A thermocouple is an invasive temperature sensor that consists
of two dissimilar electrical conductors. It is inexpensive [7] and in­
terchangeable, and requires no external form of excitation. In addi­
tion, it can measure a wide range of temperatures with appropriate
selection. An RTD is a sensor whose electrical resistance linearly
depends on temperature [8]. It is also an invasive temperature
sensor, with advantages of high linearity [9], stability, high accuracy,
and a wide operating temperature range. A thermocouple or an RTD
can only measure temperature at one point at a time, whereas
multipoint temperature measurement is required when profiling the
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mao.runze.67r@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp (R. Mao).
creasing demand for measuring the temperature profiles in batteries
and fuel cells because inappropriate thermal management can affect
their performance, reliability, and durability. To obtain the tem­
perature at multiple points in a single measurement, multiple
thermocouples or RTDs should be installed. This requires more
cables, complicates the setup, and may lead to unacceptable results
by affecting the thermal fields. To minimize the effects of sensors on
the thermal field, it is desired to install sensors with fewer cables in
many applications. Ranaweera and Kim [10] used a multijunction
thermocouple array to measure the in-plane temperature distribu­
tion of a solid oxide fuel cell and successfully measured its surface
temperature with a reduced number of thermoelements.
The undesired modification of the thermal field by the sensors
can be eliminated if IR thermography is used, which is one of the
non-invasive methods. This method allows the mapping of the
temperature distribution, providing multipoint temperature data in
a single measurement. It is, however, relatively costly and has a
lower accuracy than methods using thermocouples and RTDs par­
ticularly at high temperatures [11]. Furthermore, it requires an op­
tical path to perform the measurement, which can be a significant
restriction in the temperature measurement of batteries and fuel
cells. Sugihara and Iwai [12,13] have recently measured the tem­
perature distribution of an operating planar solid oxide fuel cell
using an infrared camera. A fuel cell was installed in a specially

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2021.113051
0924-4247/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai
Fig. 1. (a) Existing setup and (b, c) proposed setup for temperature measurement.
designed cell holder with a sapphire window on each side of the
holder to ensure the optical path for IR measurements. The purpose
of the experiments was to obtain data that could be used for the
validation of numerical simulations, rather than to reveal the
thermal phenomena in a real stack: the temperature field obtained
with the special cell holder should be different from that of a cell in a
real stack.
To acquire multipoint temperature data in a single measurement,
a novel methodology is proposed in this study, which utilizes mul­
tiple RTD–capacitor parallel circuits connected in series. The overall
impedance of the circuits is measured by electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS), and the resistance of each RTD is evaluated by
equivalent circuit fitting. The separate evaluation of the serially
connected RTDs becomes possible because the characteristic time
scale of each resistor-capacitor (RC) parallel circuit in the system can
be adjusted individually by selecting a capacitor with an appropriate
size: the capacitor is used as a marker for the RTD. When each of the
several RC parallel circuits has a different characteristic time scale,
each resistance in the system can be measured separately by EIS
measurement and the resistances are converted to temperature in­
formation. Owing to the serial connections of the RTDs, the number
of required cables can be reduced in the proposed method, on the
other hand, each RTD requires two cables in a conventional mea­
surement method using RTDs. In this work, we aim to clarify the
feasibility of the proposed methodology by EIS using multiple seri­
ally connected RTD–capacitor parallel circuits for determining the
multipoint temperature in a single measurement with fewer con­
necting cables than in conventional approaches using thermo­
couples or RTDs. The advantages and disadvantages of the proposed
methodology over the conventional and other novel temperature
measurement techniques are discussed and its potential target is
suggested.
2. Methodology
For the temperature measurement of n measuring points using
thermocouples or RTDs, except for some advanced techniques under
development in the literature [10,14], 2n number of cables are ne­
cessary for the conventional methods using thermocouples or RTDs
as shown in Fig. 1(a), which complicate the experimental setup and
may affect the temperature distribution on the measured object. To
alleviate these issues, a new measurement method using RTDs is
proposed in this study. As shown in Fig. 1(b), several RTDs are
connected in series, each of which measures the temperature at
their installed locations on the basis of the fact that the resistance of
an RTD linearly depends on the temperature. Although the re­
sistance of each RTD cannot be separately measured when the RTDs
are simply connected in series, this becomes possible by our pro­
posed novel approach in which each RTD is connected to each ca­
pacitor in parallel. When the impedance of the entire circuit shown
2
Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051
in Fig. 1(b) is measured by EIS, the resistance of each RTD can be
separately obtained when the capacitance of the capacitors is ap­
propriately selected. With this method, we can obtain the tem­
perature distribution on the measured object in a single
measurement. The number of necessary cables installed inside the
measured object extending to the outside can be reduced to n + 1.
Moreover, when the capacitors are installed next to the measured
object, the number of necessary cables from the object can be fur­
ther reduced to 2, as shown in Fig. 1(c), which can significantly
simplify the measurement system.
The principle of the multipoint temperature measurement using
EIS is explained in detail as follows. First, the impedance of a single
RC parallel circuit is expressed as follows.
1
1 R j CR2
Z= +j C =
R 1 + ( CR)2 1 + ( CR)2 (1)
where R is the resistance of the RTD; C is the capacitance of the
capacitor; j is the imaginary unit; and ω (ω = 2πf, with f being the
frequency) is the angular frequency.
The relationship between the real part of the impedance Z’ and
the imaginary part of the impedance Z′’ is expressed as follows.
2 2
R 2 R
Z +Z =
2 2 (2)
On the complex plane, called the Nyquist plot, the impedance
forms a semicircle centered at (R/2, 0) with the radius of R/2 as
shown in Fig. 2(a). It has to be emphasized that the frequency that
gives the peak point in the impedance semicircle is related to the
characteristic time scale τ of the RC parallel circuit, and it is ex­
pressed as follows.
1
= = CR
fc (3)
If the capacitors in Fig. 1(b) have different capacitances and
hence each RC parallel circuit has a different characteristic time
scale, the impedance of the entire circuit forms multiple semicircles
in the complex plane as shown Fig. 2(b). From the diameter of each
semicircle, the resistance of each RTD can be evaluated.
Since electrolytic capacitors used in the circuit have polarity,
negative voltage should not be applied to the capacitors. Therefore,
during the EIS measurement, direct current (DC) bias was also ap­
plied to the circuit so that the voltage difference at the capacitors
was always positive even when a small amplitude of alternating
current (AC) signal was applied to the circuit for the EIS measure­
ment. In this study, the DC bias voltage was 1 mV and the amplitude
of the AC signal was 1 mV.
After the EIS measurement, the resistance of each RTD, RT , is
correlated with its temperature by using the Callendar–Van Dusen
equation shown below for the temperature T equals to or higher
than 273.15 K.
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051

Fig. 2. Nyquist plot of (a) single RC parallel circuit and (b) several RC parallel circuits connected in series with capacitors of different sizes.

Fig. 3. (a) Typical relationship between resistance of platinum RTD and temperature, and between capacitance of aluminum electrolyte capacitor (AEC) and temperature. (b) Ideal
Nyquist plot of single RC parallel circuit at different temperatures.

RT = R0 [1 + A (T 273.15) + B (T 273.15)2]
where A and B are constants, and R0 is the nominal resistance. In this
study, A is 3.908 × 10 3 and B is 5.775 × 10 7, as recommended
by the manufacturing company of the RTDs used.
Fig. 3(a) shows the typical relationships between the resistance
of a platinum RTD and temperature, and between the capacitance of
an aluminum electrolyte capacitor (AEC) used in this work and
temperature. Here CT is the capacitance of the AEC and C0 is the
nominal capacitance at the reference temperature of 293.15 K.
Fig. 3(a) clearly shows linear relationships between the resistance of
the RTD and temperature, and between the capacitance of the AEC
and temperature. Note that the capacitance only shifts the char­
acteristic time scale of an RC parallel circuit and does not affect the
size of the semicircle. For this reason, the proposed method using EIS
can reflect the change in the corresponding temperature by the
change in resistance in the RC circuit according to Eq. (3). Fig. 3(b)
shows the Nyquist plot of a single RC parallel circuit at different
temperatures. As the temperature increases, the radius of the plotted
semicircle of the impedance measured by EIS also increases, which
well reflects the relationship between the resistance of the RTD and
temperature.
3. Experiment
Four experiments were conducted in this work. The circuits used
were a single RTD–capacitor parallel circuit and serially connected
double, triple, and quadruple RTD–capacitor parallel circuits. The
first experiment using the single RC parallel circuit was carried out
to verify whether EIS could correctly measure the resistance in the
RTD–capacitor parallel circuit. The second to fourth experiments
were conducted to validate that the proposed methodology could
perform multipoint temperature measurement and to explore the
(4) relationship between the performance and the number of
RTD–capacitor parallel circuits.
To achieve these purposes, the resistance of the RTD was mea­
sured by two methods. One was the conventional method using a
multimeter, and the other was the proposed method using EIS. For
the conventional method, the temperature was obtained by mea­
suring the resistance of the RTD with a multimeter and the obtained
temperature was treated as the ground truth. The accuracy of the
proposed method was evaluated by comparing the temperature
measured by EIS and the ground truth. The mean and the maximum
absolute difference between temperatures measured using the
multimeter and by EIS were used as indicators of accuracy.
3.1. Experimental setup
Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental setup. As
shown in Fig. 4(a), several RTD–capacitor parallel circuits were
connected in series and their overall impedance was measured using
an electrochemical impedance analyzer, which is a combination of a
potentiostat/galvanostat and a frequency response analyzer. At the
same time, to validate the proposed method, the resistance of each
RTD was separately measured using a multimeter as the ground
truth. A selected RTD in the circuits was heated in the experiments.
Fig. 4(b) shows a cross-sectional view of the heated RTD. The tem­
perature of the RTD was controlled by a Peltier element connected to
an electric power supply. The RTD was installed on the hot side of
the Peltier element. Thermal paste was used to eliminate air gaps at
the interface area, which may cause contact heat resistance. Fig. 4(c)
shows the photograph of the measurement setup for the proposed
temperature measurement. Since this study is a proof-of-concept
study, the circuit was assembled on a breadboard with screw
terminals connected serially, each of which parallelly holds an RTD

3
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai
Fig. 4. (a) Schematic diagram of the experimental setup. (b) Cross-sectional view of heated RTD (not to scale). (c) The photograph of the measurement setup for the proposed
temperature measurement.
and a capacitor. The number of cables extended from the circuit is
indeed reduced to 2.
For the RTD, Pt100 M222 (Heraeus, Germany) was used.
According to the datasheet released by the manufacturing company,
its resistance is 100 Ω at 273.15 K; working temperature ranges from
203.15 to 773.15 K (continuous operation); temperature coefficient of
resistance (TCR) is 0.385 Ω/K; tolerance class is F0.15; tolerance de­
finition is ± (0.15 + 0.002|T–273.15|) Ω, where T is the absolute value
of temperature in K; and dimensions are 2.3 mm × 2.1 mm × 0.9 mm
for the package and 10 mm × ø0.2 mm for the lead wires. Aluminum
electrolytic capacitors (AECs) with low equivalent series resistance
(ESR) were used (Panasonic Corporation, Japan). They have capaci­
tances of 33, 330, 1000, and 3300 μF; their working temperatures
range from 233.15 to 378.15 K. In addition, conventional AECs with
capacitances of 0.22 μF and 33,000 μF were used in these experi­
ments with the same working temperature.
For the EIS device, a 1287A potentiostat/galvanostat and a 1255B
frequency response analyzer (Solartron Analytical, U.K) were used.
Its margin of error was 0.10% ± 0.05% of range. A multimeter
VOAC87 (IWATSU, Japan) with a wide measurement range and
a ± 100 mΩ margin of error was used.
4
Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051
3.2. Experimental procedure and conditions
The RTDs in the test system were initially kept at room tem­
perature. Electrical power was supplied to the Peltier element to
heat the RTD to which the Peltier element was attached. The tem­
perature of the heated RTD increased and eventually reached the
steady state when the amount of heat that dissipated balanced with
that of input heat. The system was regarded to have reached the
steady state when the temperature fluctuations for 1 min were less
than 0.1 K. Note that the temperatures of the RTDs were monitored
by measuring their resistances using a multimeter. EIS was con­
ducted after the system reached the steady state. The temperature of
the heated RTD was varied by tuning the power supply to the Peltier
element.
A summary of the experiments conducted is shown in Fig. 5.
Exps. 1–4 correspond to the single to quadruple RC parallel circuits,
respectively. Since this was a feasibility study, the temperature range
was set to 290–360 K, which is close to room temperature. Because
the characteristic time of the RC parallel circuits used in this study
was on the order ranged from 10−5 to 1 s, the frequency range of the
EIS measurement was set to be 10−2 – 105 Hz. The measurement
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai
Fig. 5. Characteristic time of R-CPE parallel circuits in each experiment.
frequency range was varied depending on the RC circuits used in
each experiment: there was no need for low frequency measure­
ment for an RC circuit with a short characteristic time. For the
equivalent circuit fitting analysis described below, the difference in
the characteristic time scale between the neighboring R-CPE parallel
circuit was set more than 30 times in this work by properly choosing
the capacitors. According to the experiments conducted, when the
difference in capacitance is less than 30 times, the separation of the
impedance arcs is still possible, however, based on the fitting tool
used in this work, the mean error of the measurement reached 2 K
when the difference was 20 times. On the other hand, when the
difference in capacitance is equal to or more than 30 times, the mean
error of the measurement is about 0.7 K. At this point, the difference
in capacitance has a very limited effect on the mean error of
Table 1
Equivalent circuit models used for four experiments.
Experiment Equivalent circuit
5
Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051
measurement. Mean error less than 1 K in this measurement was set
as a criterion to differentiate the arcs.
3.3. Data analysis
The data obtained by EIS should be analyzed first to obtain the
resistances of the RTDs. The analysis would be easy if we could
obtain data similar to that shown in Fig. 2(b). However, a semicircle
usually overlaps with the neighboring semicircles, which makes it
difficult to evaluate the RTD resistances. To evaluate the RTD values
from the overlapping semicircles, an equivalent circuit model is used
to fit the measured data. The obtained EIS measurement data was
analyzed using a commercial software Z-view (Scribner Associates
Inc., USA) in this study. Table 1 shows the equivalent circuit models
used for the four experiments conducted. The equivalent circuit
models using lumped resistor, inductor, and capacitor (RLC) ele­
ments, can efficiently represent the electrical performance of the
circuits for circuit simulation [15]. The characteristic values of each
circuit element can be obtained by data fitting. For a standard RC
circuit, an equivalent circuit is composed of a resistor R in parallel
with a constant phase element (CPE) and an equivalent series re­
sistance (ESR) element in series. Note that CPEs are used to model
the behavior of real capacitors, because the capacitors in EIS ex­
periments often do not behave ideally. The ESR is the sum of alter­
nating current (AC) resistances. It includes the resistance of the
dielectric, plate material, electrolytic solution, and terminal leads,
which is a function of frequency.
3.4. Self-heating
In EIS measurement, DC and AC currents flow in the circuit,
which causes the self-heating of the RTD. This may result in a non-
negligible temperature increase, which affects the measurement
accuracy. The error caused by this self-heating should be clarified.
The temperature increase can be modeled as follows [16].
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051

Fig. 6. (a) Nyquist plot for single RC circuit with 33 μF capacitor in Exp. 1 at different temperatures. (b) Raw impedance data with corresponding fitting curve in Experiment 1
(measurement at room temperature).

T = I 2R × Package (5) Table 2

Summary of mean and maximum errors of RTDs in Exps. 2–4.
Here, T is the temperature increase, I is the magnitude of the RTD1 [K] RTD2 [K] RTD3 [K] RTD4 [K]
current, R is the resistance of the RTD, and Package is the package
Exp. 2 0.4 (1.0) 0.7 (1.3) – –
thermal resistance (unit: K/W). In this study, the resistance is ap­
Exp. 3 0.7 (1.5) 0.7 (1.5) 0.9 (1.5) –
proximately 120 Ω at the temperature range tested and Package is Exp. 4 0.7 (1.2) 1.0 (1.5) 0.7 (1.8) 0.8 (2.1)
0.36 K/mW. The Package was obtained by the experiment con­
ducted at the temperature range tested. The DC bias voltage was
1 mV and the amplitude of the AC signal was 1 mV; therefore, the converted to temperature. From the figure, the fitting curve is in
response current is always less than 0.02 mA, and the temperature good agreement with the experimental data. Although some fluc­
rise is estimated using Eq. (5) to be less than 0.1 K. Therefore, the tuation is found in low frequencies as seen in the magnified view in
effect of self-heating in the EIS measurement is neglected in this Fig. 6(b), its influence on the fitting accuracy was found to be limited.
study. Fig. 7 shows the temperatures measured by the two methods
using the single RC circuit combining RTDs with all capacitors em­
4. Results and discussion ployed in this study. Fair agreement was found between the tem­
perature obtained by the proposed method and that obtained using
4.1. Single-sensor experiment the conventional multimeter. A plot on the zero-error line indicates
that the results obtained by the two methods are the same. Fig. 7(a)
The single-sensor experiment (Exp. 1) was first conducted to shows that the plotted points exhibit high linearity in the observed
clarify the fundamental characteristics of the proposed method. temperature range and they are all close to the zero-error line for the
Fig. 6(a) shows a typical Nyquist plot obtained at different tem­ data obtained using the proposed equivalent circuit model shown in
peratures for a single RC circuit with a 33 μF capacitor. It can be seen Table 2. From Fig. 7(a), the mean and maximum errors for the RC
that the diameter of the semicircle increases with the temperature. circuit with all the capacitors used are confirmed to be approxi­
By fitting the Nyquist plot with the equivalent circuit model in mately 0.1 K and 0.2 K, respectively. However, from Fig. 7(b), when
Fig. 6(b), we estimated the resistance of the RTD, which was then ESR elements are ignored in the proposed equivalent circuit model,

Fig. 7. Temperatures measured using multimeter and by proposed method with EIS in single RC circuit (Experiment 1) (a) using proposed equivalent circuit model shown in
Table 2 and (b) when ESR elements are ignored in equivalent circuit model.

6
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051

Fig. 8. Raw impedance data with corresponding fitting curve obtained in Exps. (a) 2, (b) 3, and (c) 4 (measurement at room temperature).

the mean and maximum errors for the RC circuit with all capacitors
tend to increase, especially for the 0.22 µF capacitor. This shows that
the effect of ESR is large when capacitance is small; therefore, it is
better to add ESR elements into the equivalent circuit model.

4.2. Multiple-sensor experiment

4.2.1. EIS measurement of multiple sensors

Multiple RTD–capacitor parallel circuits are serially connected
and the multiple-sensor experiments were conducted. Fig. 8 shows
the raw impedance data of EIS measurements in Exps. 2–4. It can be
seen in the figure that multiple semicircles are formed corre­
sponding to the number of RC circuits used in each experiment. The
semicircles are clearly distinguishable because the characteristic
time scales of the RC circuits were chosen to be different from each
other. The crossing point of two neighboring semicircles tends not to
reach the horizontal axis unlike in Fig. 2(b). The diameter of the
Fig. 9. Average ESRs with standard deviation range when temperature was varied
semicircle changes depending on the temperature of the RTDs (not from 290 to 360 K.
shown), which confirms that the temperature can be obtained by
analyzing the EIS data.
employed it as an acceptable model to make the fitting analysis
4.2.2. Data fitting in multiple sensors robust and to examine the feasibility of the proposed method.
A constant ESR model was introduced into the equivalent circuit To determine the fixed ESRs of the ESR elements, EIS measure­
model used in the multiple-sensor experiments. As discussed in ments were conducted on the single RC circuit with different ca­
Section 4.1, the installation of an ESR element to each RC circuit gives pacitors employed in this study. The RC model with variable ESR was
a better estimate of temperature, when ESR is treated as one of the used to fit the obtained data. The temperature dependence of ESR is
parameters of curve fitting. It was, however, found that the fitting also investigated. (The EIS measurements were performed in the
calculation becomes unstable when multiple RC circuits are included frequency range near the characteristic time scale of each circuit.)
in the system with the ESR element in each circuit as the fitting Fig. 9 shows the average ESRs obtained with the standard deviation
parameter. Therefore, in this study, only one ESR element in the range when the temperature was varied from 290 to 360 K. It is seen
system was included as the fitting parameters and constant ESRs that temperature has a limited effect on ESR in the measured tem­
were used for the other ESR elements. This is not ideal because it perature range, which confirms the validity of the constant ESR
lowers the accuracy of the measurement, but we nevertheless model employed in the following analysis except for one capacitor

7
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai
Fig. 10. Temperatures measured using multimeter and by proposed method using EIS in (a) double RC circuit (Exp. 2), (b) triple RC circuits (Exp. 3), and (d) quadruple RC circuits
(Exp. 4).
with 0.22 μF modeled using a variable ESR. The figure also shows
that ESR increases with decreasing capacitance. Since the effect of
ESR on the temperature measurement is expected to be larger in a
capacitor with smaller capacitance, the variable ESR model is used
for the capacitor with the smallest capacitance 0.22 μF during the
fitting process.
4.2.3. Feasibility and accuracy of multiple-sensor measurement
The EIS data fitting for multiple-sensor measurements was suc­
cessfully conducted, the results of which are presented in Fig. 8 in a
green line. The fitted green curves fairly match their experimental
counterparts. The RTD resistances were extracted from the fitted
results and converted to temperature using Eq. (4). The tempera­
tures obtained by EIS measurements are compared with those ob­
tained using a multimeter in Fig. 10(a)–(c), for Exps. 2–4,
respectively. Note that the capacitors used in each experiment are
summarized in Table 2. The capacitor with the smallest capacitance
of 0.22 μF was modeled with a variable ESR model, whereas the
others were modeled with the constant ESR model in the fitting
process.
The results obtained by the proposed method fairly agree with
the data obtained using a conventional multimeter: all data plots are
close to the zero-error line in the figures. The mean errors of all RTDs
are shown in Table 2. The mean errors are generally higher than that
observed in Exp. 1, reflecting the constant ESR model employed in
8
Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051
Exps. 2–4. Nevertheless, the proposed method was validated to be
feasible for performing multipoint temperature measurements.
By comparing the result of Exps. 1–4, we found that the mean
errors in Exps. 2–4, in which multiple RC circuits were used, were
larger than that in Exp. 1, where a single RC was used. In Exp. 2–4,
the mean errors of individual RTDs were similar and not significantly
related to the number of the RC circuits or the order of connection.
The accuracy of the proposed methodology estimated on the basis of
the conventional RTD measurement was 0.7 K in the tested tem­
perature range in Exps. 2–4 as shown in Table 2. The accuracy of
0.7 K was obtained by averaging the mean error of each RTD sum­
marized in Table 2. Considering the operating temperature range of
the capacitors used (about 240–380 K), if the combination of RC
circuits employed in this study is used, the possible applications of
the proposed method include the temperature measurements of
electrochemical devices that operate at relatively low temperatures,
such as lithium-ion batteries, because their operating temperatures
are within the operating temperature of the capacitors used. The
main factors affecting the accuracy of the proposed method are the
accuracies of EIS, data fitting, and the RTD itself. Since these factors
are not markedly affected by the temperature range, the proposed
method has a potential to be applied in a wider temperature range,
the confirmation of which remains as a future work. It should be
noted that it is necessary to develop a novel capacitor that is smaller
in physical size and has a higher operating temperature range to
R. Mao, M. Kishimoto and H. Iwai
Table 3
Comparison of the proposed methodology with the conventional and the advanced method under development for invasive multipoint temperature measurement.
Merit
Thermocouples • Inexpensive
• Interchangeable
• A wide temperature range
RTDs • High linearity and stability
• High accuracy
• A wide temperature range
Thermocouple-based grid • Reduced connecting cables
sensor [10,14] • Transient temperature measurement
• A wide temperature range
Proposed method • Usually RTD element has a better accuracy
than thermocouple
• Further reduced connecting cables
widen the applicability of the proposed method, such as tempera­
ture measurement of high-temperature solid oxide fuel cells.
Compared with the conventional approaches using RTDs or
thermocouples, the advantage of the proposed methodology is the
reduction in the number of connected cables in multipoint tem­
perature measurement. It is particularly effective when the RC cir­
cuit is sufficiently smaller than the measuring object such that it can
be implemented in the object as shown in Fig. 1(c), requiring only
two outer cables.
Table 3 shows the comparison of the proposed methodology with
the conventional and the advanced method under development in
the literature [10,14]. Compared with conventional methods of
thermocouples or RTDs, the proposed method can measure multi­
point temperature in one single measurement with the reduction in
the number of connected cables in the measurement. In addition,
compared with the advanced method under development, the pro­
posed method further reduced connecting cables, and in most cases,
the RTD elements used in this work have better accuracy than the
thermocouple elements used in the advanced method under de­
velopment. Furthermore, the proposed method can be applied not
only to multipoint temperature measurement but also to single-
point multi-physical quantity measurement. If there are sensors
whose resistance is related to physical quantities such as tempera­
ture, concentration and pressure, they can be measured simulta­
neously with the proposed method in principle.
However, the proposed method also has some limitations. First,
EIS equipment is relatively expensive compared with resistance
measurement devices such as the multimeter. Then, it takes a long
time to measure the low frequency region in the EIS, therefore the
proposed method generally has a longer measurement time than
conventional methods, particularly when a large capacitor is em­
ployed. Subsequently, electrolytic capacitors are needed because
they have larger capacitance than most other types of capacitors to
include more RTDs. Electrolytic capacitors have large size and lim­
ited lifetime. In our future work, a smaller nominal resistance of the
RTD will be used. Thus, according to Eq. (3), the starting measure­
ment frequency can be greater than 10−1 Hz, which can reduce the
measurement time. Also, by setting a critical capacitance difference
of 30 times between adjacent capacitors for all capacitors used,
electrolytic capacitors with smaller capacitance can be installed, and
therefore smaller capacitor sizes can be achieved.
5. Conclusion
In this work, we proposed a novel methodology by EIS using RC
parallel circuits. The proposed methodology can measure multipoint
temperature in one single measurement. Compared with the con­
ventional approaches using RTDs or thermocouples, the advantage
of the proposed methodology is the reduction in the number of
connected cables in the measurement. The accuracy estimated from
Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical 331 (2021) 113051
Cable used Limitation
2 for each sensor • Many thermocouples require excessive connecting
cables, which may alter the thermal field
2 for each sensor • Many RTDs require excessive connecting cables, which
may alter the thermal field
8 for 16 sensors • Usually thermocouple has a lower accuracy than RTD
element
• Weld part of the wire are possible to fall off
2 (minimum) for n • EIS equipment is expensive
sensors • Not applicable for transient temperature measurement
• Large electrolytic capacitors are needed
conventional measurement using RTDs for the proposed metho­
dology was confirmed to be 0.7 K at temperatures of 290–360 K. If
the combination of RC circuits employed in this study is used within
the temperature range tested, the proposed method can be used for
steady or quasi-steady state measurements of electrochemical de­
vices that operate at relatively low temperatures, such as lithium-ion
batteries. In addition, the proposed method has a potential to be
applied in a wider temperature range with a shorter measuring time,
which remains as a future work. However, when multiple RC circuits
were used, their mean error was larger than that when a single RC
was used. In addition, the results show that the mean errors of in­
dividual RTDs were similar and not significantly related to the
number of RC circuits or the order of connections.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Runze Mao: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Writing – original draft, Visualization. Masashi
Kishimoto: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing,
Supervision. Hiroshi Iwai: Conceptualization, Writing – review &
editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing fi­
nancial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number
19H02077.
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Runze Mao received the B.Eng. from the School of Naval Architecture & Ocean
Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China in 2015,
and M.S. degree from Department of Ocean Operations and Civil Engineering,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway in 2019. He is currently a
Ph.D. candidate from Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto University, Japan.
His research interest includes temperature measurement and eye tracking.
Masashi Kishimoto received B. Eng. in 2008 from Undergraduate School of
Engineering Science, Kyoto University, Japan, and M. Eng. in 2010 and Ph.D. in 2013
from Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Kyoto University, Japan. From Apr.
2013 to Mar. 2015, he was a postgraduate research associate in Department of Earth
Science and Engineering in Imperial College London, U.K. He is currently an assistant
professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto University,
Japan. His research interest includes structure optimization of electrochemical de­
vices such as solid oxide fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.
Hiroshi Iwai received B. Eng., M. Eng., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1993,
1996 and 1999, all from Kyoto University, Japan. After working as a postdoctoral re­
searcher, he joined Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of
Engineering, Kyoto University as an assistant professor in 1999, and became an as­
sociate professor in Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2007. He is cur­
rently a professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto
University. His research interests include heat, mass, and charge transfer in electro­
chemical devices, transport phenomena in heterogeneous porous body, and thermal
management of solid oxide cells.