Sensirion Ag

Lucas Huber

Mark Hornung

Andreas Rüegg

Harry Figi

A thermal sensor comprises an active element (), e.g., a heater or cooler, at least one temperature sensor (), and processing circuitry (). The processing circuitry causes a change of power supplied to the active element (). It then determines, at a plurality of times, a thermal parameter based on an output signal of the temperature sensors and analyzes the transient behavior of the thermal parameter. Based on this analysis, the processing circuitry determines a contamination signal that is indicative of a contamination on a sensing surface of the thermal sensor. If the thermal sensor comprises a plurality of temperature sensors arranged in different sectors of the sensing surface, a multi-sector thermal signal can be derived from the outputs of the sensors, and determination of the contamination signal can be based on the multi-sector thermal signal.

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Stäfa, Switzerland

Lucas Huber