Silicon micromachined thermal profilers
- 30 December 2002
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Vol. 29 (01631918), 191-194
- https://doi.org/10.1109/iedm.1993.347244
Abstract
This paper presents a class of scanning thermal profilers micromachined from bulk silicon. Each device consists of an Au-polysilicon thermocouple supported by a probe shank overhanging the edge of the device substrate. The probe shank is suspended by flexural beams and can be electrostatically excited into physical motion by lateral comb drives. A polysilicon heater that can be used to provide a thermal bias during the scan lies at its base. Variations of the basic design include suspension of the thermocouple on a dielectric diaphragm, and replacing the thermocouple by a thermopile. A single-sided, IC-compatible 8 mask process has been developed to fabricate these devices. Preliminary data from test scans obtained using a simple set-up indicates that temperature resolution better than 20/spl deg/mC is possible even with basic silicon shank devices.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Thermal imaging using the atomic force microscopeApplied Physics Letters, 1993
- A bulk silicon dissolved wafer process for microelectromechanical devicesJournal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 1992
- Scanned-Probe MicroscopesScientific American, 1989
- Scanning thermal profilerApplied Physics Letters, 1986
- A batch-fabricated silicon thermopile infrared detectorIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1982