Thermal Conductivity Detector

Abstract

A thermal conductivity detector which includes a measurement channel, an electrically heatable heating filament extending longitudinally along the center of the measurement channel so that a fluid passing through the measurement channel flows around the filament, an evaluator that detects electrical resistance changes of the heating filament and provide an output representative of the presence and amount of various fluid components passing the heating filament, and a bypass channel for bypassing the measurement channel, where the bypass channel has a lower fluidic resistance than the measurement channel and where, in order to improve the detection capability, the thermal conductivity detector further includes a flow sensor for measuring the flow of the fluid in the bypass channel and for providing an output indicative of the measured flow, and a correcting device for correcting the output of the evaluator using the output of the flow sensor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.