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A system-level model for a silicon thermal flow sensor

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Abstract

A system-level model with lumped parameters for a thermal flow sensor is presented. The model is built with 13 circuit cells consisting of thermal resistors and thermal capacitors in SPICE. The circuit cell originates from the heat conduction equation using the Finite Differential Method, including the 2-D thermal conduction cell, the convection cell, and the thermal capacity in the chip. Based on the thermal model of the flow sensor, the 2-D temperature distribution of the chip can be calculated with SPICE in both the constant power mode (CP) and constant temperature difference mode (CTD). As an example, the system level model of the thermal anemometer in the CTD mode was established in PSPICE. Wind tunnel test was carried out to verify the system model, and show a reasonable agreement with the simulation results, with an error less than 8%.

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Acknowledgments

Project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (90607002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of MEMS of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Guang-Ping Shen, Ming Qin & Qing-An Huang

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  1. Guang-Ping Shen
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  2. Ming Qin
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  3. Qing-An Huang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qing-An Huang.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 1

Table 1 Thermal resistances and capacities of each cell in the flow sensor macromodel
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Shen, GP., Qin, M. & Huang, QA. A system-level model for a silicon thermal flow sensor. Microsyst Technol 15, 279–285 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-008-0665-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-008-0665-5

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