Thermally isolated microstructures for sensors and actuators

Author

Lin, Liwei ; Chiao, Mu ; Chu, Huey-Chi

Author_Institution

Inst. of Appl. Mech., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

fYear

1995

fDate

4-6 Oct 1995

Firstpage

89

Lastpage

95

Abstract

We have demonstrated the feasibility of thermal isolation by using suspended microstructures. Thermal insulation is provided by a suspension gap constructed by means of surface micromachining. Prototype line shape microstructures with a suspension gap of 2 μm and length ranging from 10 to 100 μm, width ranging from 1 to 10 μm and thickness of 2 μm have been fabricated and analyzed. Efficiencies of thermal isolation for these suspended microstructures are compared with two other microstructures, overhanging type made by bulk micromachining and attached type made by general IC process. The results show that suspended microstructures dissipate 80 times less heat than the attached type and 2 times more than the overhanging type microstructures when operated in air

Keywords

finite element analysis; heat losses; microactuators; micromachining; microsensors; power consumption; temperature control; temperature distribution; thermal insulation; 1 to 10 micron; 10 to 100 micron; 2 micron; FEM simulation; heat flux; microactuators; microsensors; power consumption; prototype line shape microstructures; shape factor; steady state solution; surface micromachining; suspended microstructures; suspension gap; thermal isolation efficiency; thermally isolated microstructures; Actuators; Micromachining; Microstructure; Shape; Silicon; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Thermal factors; Thermal resistance; Thermal sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Machine and Human Science, 1995. MHS '95., Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Nagoya

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2676-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MHS.1995.494222

Filename

494222