Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Characterization and modeling of electro-thermal MEMS structures

  • Technical Paper
  • Published:
Microsystem Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Thermal functional circuits are an interesting group of the MEMS elements with high a potential. A practical realisation is called Quadratic Transfer Characteristics (QTC) element of which driving principle is the Seebeck effect. Such devices can be applied e.g. as RMS meters. In this paper we are dealing with the analyses of a QTC element from different perspectives. A family of compact models is presented. These models are suitable to use in network simulation programs. To investigate the detailed behaviour of the device, we measured a few secondary properties of the structure, such as temperature dependence, cut-off frequency and non-quadratic error.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This statement has been proved by the measurements in vacuum chamber we conducted after the paper was written and will be presented in detail in another article.

References

  • Arx M, Paul O, Baltes H (2000) Process-dependent thin-film thermal conductivities for thermal CMOS MEMS. J Microelectromech Syst 9(1):136–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charlot B, Mir S, Cota EF, Lubaszewski M, Courtois B (1999) Fault simulation of MEMS using HDLs. Proc Soc Photo Opt Instrum Eng 3680:70–77. doi:10.1117/12.341215

    Google Scholar 

  • Geballe TH, Hull GW (1955) Seebeck effect in silicon. Phys Rev 98(4):940–947. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.98.940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maycock PD (1967) Thermal conductivity of silicon, germanium, III-V compounds and III-V alloys. Solid-state Electron 10(3):161–168. doi:10.1016/0038-1101(67)90069-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nathan A, Baltes H (1999) Microtransducer CAD: physical and computational aspects. Springer, Vienna

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Rencz M, Székely V, Poppe A, Courtois B (2003) Electro-thermal simulation of MEMS elements. In: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) computer society, symposium on desing, test, integration and packiging of MEMS & MOEMS, Cannes-Mandelieu, France, 5–7 May 2003

  • Székely V (1976) New type of thermal-function IC: the 4-quadrant multiplier. Electron Lett 12(15):372–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Székely V (1998) THERMODEL: A tool for compact dynamic thermal model generation. Microelectron J 29:257–267. doi:10.1016/S0026-2692(97)00065-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Székely V, Bien TV (1988) Fine structure of heat flow path in semiconductor devices: a measurement and identification method. Solid-State Electron 31(9):1363–1368. doi:10.1016/0038-1101(88)90099-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Székely V, Rencz M, Poppe A, Courtois B (2001) THERMODEL: a tool for thermal model generation and application for MEMS. Analog Integr Circuits Signal Process 29:49–59. doi:10.1023/A:1011226213197

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to explain their gratitude to Ernő Kollár for his hints and help in the measurements. We are thankful to György Bognár for his comments in connection with the theoretical explanations, and to the other colleagues in the Department of Electron Devices whom helped the authors with their ideas. The authors thank to the Tima Laboratory for providing samples of QTC elements. Present research is partly funded by the Network of Excellence PATENT DfMM in FP6 of the European Union.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electron Devices, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Gábor Szabó & Vladimír Székely

Authors
  1. Péter Gábor Szabó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vladimír Székely
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Péter Gábor Szabó.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Szabó, P.G., Székely, V. Characterization and modeling of electro-thermal MEMS structures. Microsyst Technol 15, 1293–1301 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-009-0845-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-009-0845-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation