Introduction:

PTC thermistors have been used in a wide variety of applications over the years. PTC thermistor applications make use of the characteristics inherent in their composition. Generally, applications are broken up into two distinct categories that utilize different characteristics of the PTC. The first category is those applications that utilize the voltage-current or current-time characteristics of the PTC thermistor. These are sometimes known as self-heated applications. The other general category is zero power or sensing applications. Unlike the Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistor, the resistance versus temperature characteristic of a PTC thermistor is not well defined and applications that utilize the resistance versus temperature characteristic tend to utilize only a small portion of the Resistance vs Temperature curve and utilize broader tolerances than that of NTC thermistors.

To learn more about the science behind PTC thermistors and possible applications click here.

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