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A solid-state micro magnetic refrigerator (SSMMR) has some advantages to cool microdevices because of its high efficiency and simple structure. In this study, we demonstrated the actual cooling of a thermally-isolated microstructure, which is a main component of the SSMMR, by the magnetocaloric effect. The thermal isolation structure is composed of parylene high-aspect-ratio beams for both high thermal isolation and high stiffness. A magnetic field switch was designed and fabricated to control the magnetic flux density from 0 T to about 1 T. Under this magnetic flux density change, the maximum temperature change of 1.0 • C was confirmed.

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We first demonstrated considerable reduction of thermal contact resistance (TCR) of a bending thermal contactor in microscale using carbon nanotubes (CNTs). TCR reduction using CNTs were previously reported with flat contact surface, but the thermal contact surfaces of actual microdevices often bend because of their residual and thermal stress. We evaluated both flat and bending contact surfaces to apply this method for a variety of applications. The TCR reduction is observed not only with a flat contact surface but also a bending surface. A bending micro thermal contactor with a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-grown 10 µm long “CNT carpet” shows a TCR of ca. 600 mm2 K/W at a contact pressure of 20 kPa, which is about 1/10 to the TCR of the reference contactor without “CNT carpet”. This technique is useful for micro thermal devices such as micro thermal switch.

This paper reports an on-chip electrochromic micro display made of polyaniline (PANi) which can be easily made on a CMOS chip. Micro-patterned PANi thin films were selectively deposited on pre-patterned microelectrodes by using electrodeposition. The optimum conditions for deposition and electrochromism were investigated. An 8-pixel on-chip micro display was made on a Si chip. The color of each PANi film could be independently but simultaneously controlled, which means any 1-byte digital data could be displayed on the display. The PANi display had a response time as fast as about 100 ms, which means the transfer data rate was as fast as 80 bits per second.