Development of a Vertically Configured MEMS Heat Flux Sensor

Abstract

Heat flux sensors have potential in enabling applications that require direct and instantaneous tracking of thermal energy transfer. To facilitate widespread use of the sensors, the sensors have to be robust and feasible to implement, while maintaining high sensitivity, fast response time, and low thermal obtrusiveness. However, most currently available heat flux sensors are either challenging to manufacture or ill-suited for surface heat flux measurement because of their mechanical or thermal characteristics. In this paper, the design of a novel MEMS heat flux sensor structure intended for surface heat flux measurements is presented. A prototype batch is manufactured and the electrical performance of the prototype sensors is compared with commercially available heat flux sensors. Results show that sensors with a similar sensitivity as commercial sensors can be made by using MEMS methods.

Roll‐to‐Roll Printing of Anomalous Nernst Thermopile for Direct Sensing of Perpendicular Heat Flux

“…[4] Many practical thermoelectric devices have been developed based on semiconductor materials with high SE performance. [5][6][7][8][9] However, the fabrication of mass-producible, flexible, and large-area thermoelectric devices has been difficult because the materials are often brittle and the geometry of the longitudinal thermoelectric conversion requires a complicated structure called a 𝜋-shaped array composed of pand n-type semiconductors.…”

Dynamic Calibration of a Thin-Film Heat-Flux Sensor in Time and Frequency Domains

“…Levikari et al studied the frequency response test of a self-made MEMS heat-flux sensor, and in the experiment, a chopper was used to generate a periodic excitation heat flux of 0~50 Hz. The commercial HFS model of green TEG gSKIN XP was selected as the standard sensor, but due to the limited frequency of the chopper and standard sensor, the test frequency only reached 3.5 Hz [ 17 ]. For this reason, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) was used to obtain the response frequency of the heat-flux sensor [ 18 ].…”