Characterization and Modeling of an Electro-thermal MEMS Structure

TL;DR

This paper analyzes an electro-thermal MEMS structure, specifically a Quadratic Transfer Characteristic (QTC) element based on the Seebeck effect, including experimental measurements of secondary properties to understand its real behavior.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of a QTC MEMS device from multiple perspectives and reports experimental measurements of secondary properties.

Findings

Measured secondary properties of the QTC device

Identified behaviors not derivable from main characteristics

Enhanced understanding of the device's real behavior

Abstract

Thermal functional circuits are an interesting and perspectivic group of the MEMS elements. A practical realization is called Quadratic Transfer Characteristic (QTC) element which driving principle is the Seebeck-effect. In this paper we present the analyses of a QTC element from different perspectives. To check the real behavior of the device, we measured a few, secondary properties of the structure which correspond to special behavior because these properties can not be easily derived from the main characteristics.