6.2.

1 Thermal Types
At normal pressures, the heat conductivity of gases is independent of its pressure but as pressure
decreases to about 1cm of mercury and below, heat conductivity starts falling. This is because the
number of gas molecules in a specific volume is now smaller and there is less collision amongst them
and with the wall. It is this collision that is responsible for carrying the energy to the walls of the
container. Thus as pressure falls, less and less molecules are available to carry the heat away from the
source.
At low pressures, the heat loss that occurs from a hot wire mounted in a glass or metal tube is due to: (1)
convection (usually this is negligible) (2) conduction through the lead wires (3) radiation
For measurement of pressure by the thermal conductivity method, the losses due to lead conduction and
radiation should be negligibly small. The former depends on construction of the probe, the latter is made
less by choosing a low emissivity metal as the wire material. The value of for tungsten and platinum
when properly treated can be made to be as low as 0.03at 0°C, to 0.1 at 500°C.
The commonly known thermal conductivity gauges are (1) Pirani gauges and (2) thermocouple gauges.
The basic gauge probe consists of a fine wire of platinum or tungsten of 0.001 in. diameter mounted in a
tube which is connected to the system whose vacuum is to be measured. The current range of heating is
usually between 10 to 100 mA with a temperature range from 70 to 400C. The Pirani gauge is connected
in a bridge circuit for measurement purposes as shown in Figure 4.31a. There are three different modes
of measurement:
1. Voltage V is maintained constant and the detector shows the change in the current with change in
pressure. The characteristic is shown in Figure 4.31b.
2. The current through the gauge is kept constant and the resistance R2of the gauge is measured, the
relation is shown graphically in Figure 4.31c.

Fig. 4.31 The Pirani gauge: a Bridge circuit having the Pirani gauge resistance; b I—p characteristic; c
R—p characteristic
The gauge is composition-dependent and requires empirical calibration. The calibration curves for
different gases are shown in Figure 4.32. The range of the instrument could be extended down to 1µ
from 0.1 cm for commercial purposes.

Thermocouple gauge
The basic principle of a thermocouple gauge is the same as that of a Pirani gauge except that the
temperature of the hot wire is now directly measured by a thermocouple which is attached to the hot
wire as shown in Figure 4.34.

Fig. 4.34 Scheme of a thermocouple gauge

The temperature is measured by the fine wire thermocouple for different pressures, the heating current
being initially fixed by the resistance as shown. Sensitivity of such an instrument depends on the
pressure and the wire current. A set of temperature versus pressure curves for different probe currents
are shown in Figure 4.35.

Fig. 4.35 Temperature (T) versus pressure (p) plots for various currents
Thermocouple gauges are generally used for comparison purposes. The arrangement in use is shown in
Figure 4.36. Two sets of thermocouples are introduced to measure temperatures of heater wires in the
two chambers and oppose each other. When pressures are different there is an unbalance which is
measured by a potentiometer circuit. Instead of a single thermocouple per wire, a thermopile is often
chosen to increase sensitivity. The thermocouple gauge is also composition-dependent and needs
empirical calibration (Figure 4.37) for the high vacuum range.
Fig. 4.36Vacuum comparison by thermocouple gauges Fig. 4.37Composition dependence of
thermocouple gauges

Ionization Gauge
When a potential difference V is impressed across a column of gas with free electron in the space, the
electron with a charge e acquires a kinetic energy V.e. If the column gas has a pressure below a certain
value called the critical pressure, then corresponding to a voltage larger than the critical voltage the
energy V.emay be high enough to initiate ionization, i.e. the electron will collide with the gas molecule
to produce positive ions. Among monatomic gases or vapors, is smallest for cesium (3.88V) and
largest for helium (24.58V). For diatomic gases like N2, H2, etc. it is roughly about 15V. This is known
as the ionization potential and at this potential the pressure is also critical.
At low pressures, during the intervals of time for transit from the cathode to the plate in a vacuum
chamber, more than one collision is unlikely for an electron. Then for a fixed accelerating potential >
, the number of positive ions formed should vary linearly with pressure. Hence a determination of the
rate of production of positive ions for a given electron current should give a measure of the pressure.

The gauge is generally constructed like a vacuum triode as shown in Figure 4.38. The grid is maintained
at a large positive potential with respect to the cathode and the plate.

Fig. 4.38 Circuit arrangement of the ionization gauge

The plate is at a negative potential with respect to the cathode. Since the positive ion collector is external
to the electron collector (grid) with reference to the cathode, this method of arrangement is also known
as the external control type ionization gauge. The positive ions between grid and plate will be collected
by the plate while those in between grid and cathode will be drawn by the cathode.

Fig. 4.39 Connections for the internal control type ionization gauge
The hot cathode ionization gauge measures the total pressure of all the gases present in the system and
response time is negligible because of negligible inertia. It measures pressure within a range of
10 10 cm of mercury, with an output current varying from10 10 . This, however,
depends on the gas, other things remaining constant.

Fig. 4.40 Calibration curves for three different gases

When the pressure is higher than10 cm mercury, the positive ions make a greater impact on the
cathode to heat it up and ultimately destroy it. At pressures lower than 10 cm mercury, electron impact
over the grid (in the external-control type) produces X-rays (soft) which in turn liberate electrons from
the plate as secondary emission. This secondary emission current is of the same order as that of the
positive ion current in the plate circuit and thus neutralizes this current.
At a high temperature of the cathode (3000°C), the gas constituents sometimes react with the filament or
with themselves particularly at different pressure stages. This shortens the cathode life and also gives
erroneous results. At high temperatures and low pressures trapped gases, if any, may be released causing
the pressure to increase. This requires proper treatment of the electrodes before use.
Alphatron Gauge
Another cold cathode gauge is the radioactive ionization gauge commercially known as alphatron. It
uses α-particles to ionize the gas in the vacuum chamber. The number of ions formed in the chamber is
directly proportional to the gas pressure if the chamber dimensions are shorter than the range of α-
particles. Figure 4.42 shows the schematic arrangement of the alphatron.

Fig. 4.42 Schematic arrangement of an alphatron

The ions produced by the α-particles are collected by the collector electrode and a current between
10 10 A will flow through the resistor R. A vacuum tube electrometer is used to measure the
output voltage . The range of the instrument is easily between 10 10 mm mercury. As the
above mentioned gauges are composition-dependent, the transfer characteristics may be obtained,
relative to air for different gases and the system can be used as a leak-detector.