Spatiotemporal Thermal Modulation and Patterning using a Programmable 1024 Element Microheater Array

TL;DR

This paper presents a 1024-element programmable microheater array with high spatial and temporal control, enabling advanced thermal patterning for applications like biosensing and microfabrication.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable row-column addressing architecture for large microheater arrays, demonstrating independent control of 1024 elements with high precision.

Findings

Successful fabrication of a 32x32 platinum microheater array

Independent control of all 1024 microheaters achieved

Demonstrated thermal patterning and metallic structure formation

Abstract

Programmable microheater arrays are essential for a variety of applications including gas sensing, microfluidic lab on a chip devices, 3D printers, and biosensors that rely on DNA amplification. Increasing the density and number of heating elements directly correlates with the precision with which spatiotemporal heat profiles can be delivered. However, large arrays have thus far not been realized. One challenge is that as the number of elements in an array increases, the complexity of connecting them grows. Here, we show that row-column addressing provides a promising architecture for the efficient operation of a large micro-heater array. We introduce a programmable 32 x 32 microheater array consisting of individually addressable robust platinum (Pt)-based Joule heating elements- each smaller than 300 micrometer. We show that combining high-voltage multiplexed electronics and sequential addressing controlled by a high frequency clock, allows the independent operation of the 1024 microheater elements. We demonstrate the generation of heat images and the patterning of metallic structures formed from the liquid metal Gallium. Our work demonstrates new capabilities for on-chip thermal devices, and opens the possibility to realize novel heat-controlled microactuation systems.