Thermal Inverse design for resistive micro-heaters

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated inverse design method for resistive micro-heaters that optimizes their resistivity distribution to achieve specific temperature profiles efficiently, without extensive simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, computationally efficient inverse design scheme for resistive heaters that enables objective-driven optimization of temperature profiles.

Findings

Enables automated design of resistive heaters with desired temperature profiles

Reduces computational effort by avoiding extensive iterative simulations

Applicable to electronics, photonics, and MEMS applications

Abstract

This paper proposes an inverse design scheme for resistive heaters. By adjusting the spatial distribution of a binary electrical resistivity map, the scheme enables objective-driven optimization of heaters to achieve pre-defined steady-state temperature profiles. The approach can be fully automated and is computationally efficient since it does not entail extensive iterative simulations of the entire heater structure. The design scheme offers a powerful solution for resistive heater device engineering in applications spanning electronics, photonics, and microelectromechanical systems.