The dynamic operation of the micro-thermocouple sensor as
vacuum gauge consists in heating a micro thermocouple with an
electric current by Joule effect during a constant phase and letting it
cool during a second phase, which depends on the pressure existing
inside a vacuum chamber volume. An electronic command
ensures the succession of these two processes and it becomes
possible to connect the pressure information to the obtained signal
frequency. The sensor is then used as a vacuum gauge. Moreover, at
the end of the cooling phase, the signal value corresponds to the
local temperature of the fluid and this method presents thus the
advantage to measure the two local thermodynamic parameters,
the pressure and the temperature, with one probe only