Temperature effect in the calibration of capacitive humidity sensors

Abstract

Capacitive hygrometers are widely used in industrial and environmental measurements. One of the limitations of these sensors is their temperature dependence. While in temperatures beyond 50 °C the effect has been proven to be significant, for standard conditions in calibration laboratories the magnitude of this dependence has not been rigorously studied. This paper presents the analysis and results of a study of the temperature influence in the calibration of capacitive hygrometers designed for monitoring environmental conditions. Ninety measurements were taken on 15 models of capacitive hygrometers using a two-pressure humidity generator between 30%rh and 80%rh and temperatures from 20 to 30 °C. A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the data. The results show that the calibration correction is independent of the temperature for the conditions considered; however, there is a correlation between the temperature and the devices, indicating that the gradients in temperature affect each technology of fabrication in a different way.