NTC (Negative Temperature Coefficient) thermistors are thermally sensitive semiconductor resistors which show a decrease in resistance as temperature increases, and its rate of change is extremely large.

Its main applications include temperature sensing in electronic equipment and temperature compensation for module products.

However, if the user misuses the product, it may not function properly and, in the worst case, this may cause malfunctions.

This page introduces the causes and countermeasures for ”cracks” and ”melting of ceramics” as failure modes caused by improper use of NTC thermistors.

【How electrification and autonomous driving are expanding the role of sensor technologies within automotive designs】

The automotive production landscape is changing. The proliferation of electronic devices and sensors in modern car design has grown exponentially in recent years. It will expand further as the industry continues its transition toward e-mobility and autonomous driving. The core technologies featured in electric vehicles expand the realm into which sensors are deployed. Also, combustion engine vehicle gas sensors have shifted away from exhaust gas monitoring toward internal air quality (IAQ) measurement.

TDK offers a full suite of sensors that are perfectly suited for drones of all types from consumer/prosumer models to industrial units.
 
In just a few years, drones have become indispensable in one application after another, including such diverse areas as agriculture, real estate and cinematography. For all this success, drones still have almost unlimited potential given their suitability for a wide variety of uses including delivery, inspection, search & rescue, monitoring, and mapping, to name just a few.
 
Fundamental to drone utility is sensor technology. Drones rely on diverse sets of sensors for two broad purposes. First for their own functionality, notably flight and navigation, and second, for their ancillary capabilities – cameras for vision, motion detectors to sense activity, heat sensors to detect temperature, and so on.

Service robots play an increasingly vital role in society, from transportation and warehouse logistics to home entertainment and security. Regardless of their application, they need to sense changes in their surroundings in real-time to ensure safety while providing a positive user experience. To illustrate how various sensor technologies from TDK’s SmartSensor family can be applied in service robots, this article focuses on a robotic vacuum cleaner (RVC).
Early versions of robotic vacuums had very little intelligence, randomly bumping their way around the home and sometimes missing areas as they did not know where they had been. Often, they would unwittingly become trapped or run out of charge mid-sweep. And, as their dust box is comparatively small to a regular vacuum cleaner, if full, they could be sweeping but not collecting anything up. Over the years, with the innovative use of sensors and motor controllers, vacuum cleaning robots have become much smarter, overcoming these issues.

In e-mobility, the temperature of all system units needs to be constantly monitored. The high currents result in losses with a corresponding generation of heat arising, in particular, at contacts. TDK has now developed a special-purpose high-voltage resistant temperature sensor for connectors.

The Child Presence Detection system uses various sensors to detect the presence of a child or pet in the vehicle and notify and warn the driver. A roadmap for evaluation has been formulated within Euro-NCAP, a European automobile safety testing programme.

With the spread of cloud computing and smartphones and the launch of 5G in 2020, the amount of data that moves on the internet is increasing as high-volume video and game data is added to existing documents, images, and sound data.
In addition, technologies are evolving, exemplified by AI, and a digital transformation (DX) is taking place as a result of the use of big data and the internet of things (IoT). To support these advances, however, large numbers of high-performance servers that can process large volumes of data will be needed. In conjunction with the increased performance of processors and various types of ICs, higher clock speeds of power supply ICs on server boards, high current power saving, miniaturization, noise countermeasures in data lines, and surge countermeasures have become urgent issues. Here, we introduce TDK products for addressing and solving these problems including the VLBU series of ferrite power inductors compatible with the high-efficiency needs of VR13 and VR14 applications, the FS series of DC-DC converters with embedded μPOL™, solutions using the ALT series of pulse transformers and ALC series of common mode filters and chokes, and chip varistors and ceramic transient voltage suppressors used for surge protection.

Automobiles are entering a period of change, and technological innovation supporting electrification and its widespread adoption are becoming important topics.
At the same time, measures to reduce CO2 and exhaust emissions by addressing environmental issues require efforts to develop engines with higher efficiency.
In this article, we present TDK temperature sensors (NTC thermistors) and pressure sensor transmitter/pressure sensor die products that are essential for enhancing engine intake and exhaust performance in order to contribute to the resolution of these issues.

The evolution of sensing technology and communication network contribute to the realization of an Autonomous driving society and its growth. Ultrasonic parking assistant is a key sensor for automated driving and parking functions. Ultrasonic parking sensors were in use in Europe long before debate on automated driving became active. TDK has for many years supplied Piezo Disks and ultrasonic driver transformers for use with ultrasonic parking sensors. TDK also developed a multilayer ceramic chip capacitor that exhibits attenuating capacitance (ZL characteristics) under high-temperature environments that is suitable for resonant circuits with Piezo Disk. This article presents Piezo Disk, ultrasonic driver transformers, and MLCC with ZL characteristics.

The evolution of sensing technology and communication network contribute to the realization of Autonomous driving society and its growth. In association with full-scale expansion of the "5G service" next-generation wireless communication standard, great attention is being placed on wireless technology intended for "vehicle-to-vehicle and infrastructure-to-vehicle communication" (V2X) to communicate data between automobiles and their surroundings. While the TDK Group can offer a lineup of various electronic components for V2X, this article introduces a selection of IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and high-frequency products for Telematics Control Units (TCUs).