A Thermopile Detector Based on Micro-Bridges for Heat Transfer
A thermopile detector with their thermocouples distributed in micro-bridges is designed and investigated in this work. The thermopile detector consists of 16 pairs of n-poly-Si/p-poly-Si thermocouples, which are fabricated using a low-cost, high-throughput CMOS process. The micro-bridges are realize...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Micromachines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/12/12/1554 |
| Summary: | A thermopile detector with their thermocouples distributed in micro-bridges is designed and investigated in this work. The thermopile detector consists of 16 pairs of n-poly-Si/p-poly-Si thermocouples, which are fabricated using a low-cost, high-throughput CMOS process. The micro-bridges are realized by forming micro trenches at the front side first and then releasing the silicon substrate at the back side. Compared with a thermopile device using a continuous membrane, the micro-bridge-based one can achieve an improvement of the output voltage by 13.8% due to a higher temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions as there is a decrease in thermal conduction loss in the partially hollowed structure. This technique provides an effective way for developing high-performance thermopile detectors and other thermal devices. |
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| ISSN: | 2072-666X |