Performance Analysis of Micro Heaters for Sensor Applications

This paper presents the design, simulation and analysis of Platinum micro-heaters for sensor applications. Finite element method (FEM) analysis was used to investigate the thermal properties of individual electrically driven platinum micro-heaters. The uniform heat distribution and optimization of power consumption for the micro-heaters were performed by simulating on possible different patterns using COMSOL. Four different patterns of micro-heaters were used in simulation and they are (a) rectangular spiral, (b) diagonal slanting, (c) double spiral and (d) complementary double spiral type. These micro-heaters are designed to ensure minimum power consumption, low thermal mass and better temperature uniformity. The Simulated temperature profile shows that the temperature distribution is uniform over the sensing area. For all the four patterns the temperature profile and power consumption when operated over a supply voltage of 0.5 V to 4 V to obtain an operating temperature from 300 K to 1200 K is compared and presented.