Searching for Operating Principles of Miniaturized Thermal Signal Transducers

The work is aimed at using the structural synthesis methods for searching for principles of sensors, for synthesizing principles of miniaturized thermal signal transducers, working in outer space, and any engineering systems. It has been suggested the idea of signal transducers designing. The technique is based on the structure synthesis of substance and energy transformations of signals with selection of the most rational combinations of physical phenomena and using of material properties where said phenomena manifest themselves. The methods are based on a matter-energy aspect of description of signal processes having different physical nature. They include: (a) creating a bank of data on physical phenomena in the form suitable for computer-aided processing; (b) forming a working principle of a transducer as a set of physical phenomena; (c) evaluating properties of transformation structures with the use of a criterion of generalized resistances matching, developed and based on the fundamentals of theoretical mechanics and the theory of electrical two-terminal pair networks. A complex of programs for looking up new principles of engineering systems based on energy and matter transformations has been developed. In developing the complex, we used methods of the theory of analogies, similarity and modeling as well as graph theory. It has been considered the operation principle and described the construction of the heat signal transducer being the transistor analogue which can operate under extreme conditions, for example, with elevated radiation and low temperatures in space.