"Design and Performance Analysis of MEMS Micro-Heater for Uniform Temperature Platform for Efficient Gas Sensor Application"

For MEMS based gas sensor, Poly-Si based spiral geometry of micro-heater is proposed. Micro-heater is placed on platform of SiO2 having 2 µm height and 120 µm x 120 µm surface area. Micro-heater temperature characteristic is analysed for two cases: 1. Varying applied voltage for constant dimensions of micro-heater geometry. 2. Varying dimensions (height and width) of micro-heater for constant applied voltage. Also variation in resistance of micro-heater due to temperature change and transient temperature response are analysed. Power consumption for Poly-Si based geometries are compared. In presented micro-heater, temperature variations occur from 323.0° K to 645.47° K for changing applied voltage from 0 V to 3.0 V for constant dimensions of micro-heater. Also in other case, for constant applied voltage of 3.0V, there is a change in temperature from 645.47° K to 701.69° K due to height variations of micro-heater from 2 µm to 3 µm. It is also found that, better temperature uniformity can be achieved in micro-heater geometry by proper variation in width of micro-heater. These results are observed with finite element modelling of COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3. These results are helpful to find out value of applied voltage and height of micro-heater geometry for desired temperature requirement in gas sensing application. Also these results lead to transient temperature analysis of Poly-Si micro-heater and solution of temperature uniformity problem.