Sensimer
A desktop experimentation and research platform to drive, control and monitor Microheaters, and to record and analyze their thermal response. It comprises a Microheater and associated electronics, Software to define Electrical Excitation and to observe the corresponding response of the Microheater.
Structure & Principle:
Platinum based Microheater with integrated temperature sensor
- Micro-structures(coil) in platinum that can be heated from room temperature to several hundreds of degree Celsius within a few milliseconds.
- The heater coil is sandwiched between layers of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride.
- This sandwiched membrane is suspended on a silicon substrate and acts like a hot plate when connected to a power source due to resistive heating.
- There is a thermally coupled RTD which acts as an integrated temperature sensor for in-situ temperature measurement/sensing.
Working:
- The Microheater is given an electrical excitation in the form of standard input signals like sine, square, triangular, etc. or user-defined inputs
- This excitation causes the heater to ramp up to several tens and hundreds of degrees with a characteristic thermal profile that depends on the type of input .
- The thermal profile can be seen as a graph of Temperature vs Time
- The rise and fall times to different input signals can be analyzed
- Each PCB comes with 2 Microheaters to enable carrying out differential measurements
- Experiments can be performed to study the effect of addition of thermal mass on the thermal response of the Microheater
Features and specifications:
- Micro Heater Instrumentation System with Electrical readout.
- Real time display (3.5”)and data logging.
- Compact Table Top devices, no bulky instrumentation required.
- Operation Mode: Standalone and PC.
- Easy Plug and Play operation.
- Results can be analyzed with our software.
For Research/Projects/Product Development:
Sensimer can be used to carry out various nano-scale heating, thermal monitoring, thermal cycling & gas sensing experiments, etc. It can also take temperature v/s time schedule as an input to execute pre-defined thermal cycles like the ones used in PCR.
Applications:
- Design and Develop a MEMS based sensor for chemical/gas/flow detection.
- Study and Analyze the response of the MEMS heater sensor due to various types of electrical excitation and understand their significance from productization point of view.
- Set Up a MEMS and Sensor laboratory and encourage students to perform experiments, undertake projects and publish research papers.
- Perform various nano-scale heating and sensing experiments with microheaters.