Title of Paper:A MEMS Device Capable of Measuring Near-Field Thermal Radiation between Membranes

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Date of Publication:2013-02-01

Journal:SENSORS

Included Journals:SCIE、EI、PubMed、Scopus

Volume:13

Issue:2

Page Number:1998-2010

ISSN No.:1424-8220

Key Words:MEMS; freestanding membrane; near-field; thermal radiation

Abstract:For sensors constructed by freestanding membranes, when the gap between a freestanding membrane and the substrate or between membranes is at micron scale, the effects of near-field radiative heat transfer on the sensors' thermal performance should be considered during sensor design. The radiative heat flux is transferred from a membrane to a plane or from a membrane to a membrane. In the current study of the near-field thermal radiation, the scanning probe technology has difficulty in making a membrane separated at micron scale parallel to a plane or another membrane. A novel MEMS (micro electromechanical system) device was developed by sacrificial layer technique in this work to realize a double parallel freestanding membrane structure. Each freestanding membrane has a platinum thin-film resistor and the distance between the two membranes is 1 mu m. After evaluating the electrical and thermal characteristics of the lower freestanding membrane, experimental measurements of near-field radiative heat transfer between the lower membrane and the upper membrane were carried out by setting the lower membrane as a heat emitter and the upper membrane as a heat receiver. The near-field radiative heat transfer between the two membranes was validated by finding a larger-than-blackbody radiative heat transfer based on the experimental data.