Patent ID: 7084342

Claim:
A thermocouple system, comprising: a thermocouple portion having a thermocouple defined by two thermocouple conductors with each composed of a different thermoelement material, said conductors joined to form a hot junction; a semi-compensation portion having a conductor pair, wherein each conductor of the pair is coupled in series with a separate one of the thermocouple conductors and at least one of the semi-compensation conductors is composed of a material different than the thermoelectric material of the serially coupled thermocouple conductor; a cold junction compensation portion having a conductor pair, wherein each cold junction conductor is composed of the same material, and each is coupled in series to a separate one of the semi-compensation conductors and wherein at least one of the semi-compensation conductors is composed of a different material than the material of the two cold junction conductors; and a cold junction formed by the coupling of the semi-compensation conductors and the cold junction conductors; said semi-compensation conductors configured to provide a partial compensation EMF to a thermocouple EMF developed at the cold junction.