Electrothermal sensors

Thermal actuators
• Thermal microactuators are standard components in microsystems
and can be powered electrically through Joule heating or optically
with a laser.
• MEMS designs containing thermal microactuators include optical
switches
• Advantages of thermal microactuators include higher force
generation, lower operating voltages, and less susceptibility to
adhesion failures compared to electrostatic actuators.
• Thermal microactuators do require more power and their
switching speeds are limited by cooling times.
• Designs of electrically powered MEMS thermal actuators include
actuators fabricated from a single material (Comtois et al., 1998;
Park et al., 2001; Que et al., 2001) and bimorphs (Ataka et al., 1993).
• In addition to electrical heating, powering thermal
microactuators optically using laser irradiation has been
demonstrated (Oliver et al., 2003; Phinney & Serrano, 2007;
Serrano & Phinney, 2008).
• In order for thermal actuators to operate, sufficient heating and
thermal expansion of the components must occur. However,
device temperatures that are too high result in permanent
deformation, damage, and degradation in performance.
• Thermal microactuator designs
• Figure 1 shows schematics of three thermal microactuator designs:
bimaterial, bent-beam,and flexure.
• Bimaterial actuators consist of materials with different coefficients
of thermal expansion and function similarly to a bimetallic
thermostat (Ataka et al., 1993).
• When the temperature changes due to an embedded heater, the
microactuator moves due to the difference in the expansion
associated with the temperature change (Fig. 1a).
• Bent-beam actuators have angled legs that expand when heated,
providing force and displacement output as shown in Fig. 1b
(Park et al., 2001; Que et al., 2001).
• The flexure actuator in Fig. 1c contains asymmetric legs, for
example of unequal width, that flex to the side due to differential
expansion when heated (Comtois et al., 1998).
• During operation of an electrically powered thermal
microactuator, a current is applied to heat the actuator and
thereby create displacement or force output.
• Displacement and total actuator electrical resistance
measurements as a function of input current are easily obtained
Conductometric sensors
• Conductometric sensors have a simple structure and their operating
principle is based on the fact that their electrical conductivity (or
electrical conductance) can be modulated by the presence or absence
of some chemical species that comes in contact with the device
(Wohltjen et al. 1985).
• Figure below shows a typical structure of a conductometric sensor.
• It consists of two elements, a sensitive conducting layer and contact
electrodes.
• These electrodes are often interdigitated and embedded in the sensitive
layer.
• To make the measurement, a DC voltage is applied to the device and the
current flowing through the electrodes is monitored as the response
• The main advantages of these sensors are easy fabrication, simple
operation, and low production cost, which means that well-engineered
metal-oxide conductometric sensors can be mass produced at reasonable
cost.
• Moreover, these sensors are compact and durable. As a result, they are
amenable to being placed in situ in monitoring wells.

• The basis of the operation of conductometric sensors is the change in

resistance under the effect of reactions (adsorption, chemical reactions,
diffusion, catalysis) taking place on the surface of the sensing layer.
• The chemical species interact with the sensitive layer and thus modulate
its electrical conductivity. This can be measured as a change in the
current, which is correlated to the concentration of the chemical species
• The two main categories of conductometric gas sensors are thin- and
thick-film sensors.
• Their preparation involves different techniques.
• The different structural properties due to the fabrication and film
thickness lead to different sensing properties.
• In thick-film sensors, the film thickness is typically in the range of 2–
300 µm. Thick-film technology, based mainly on screen printing, is the
most common fabrication technique for such sensors.
• The layer itself is a porous body, so the inner surface also becomes a
working surface. Therefore, the gases diffuse into it, leading to good
sensitivity.
• The conductance usually is controlled by the contact resistance
between the grains.
• In thin-film sensors the film thickness is typically 5–500 nm, in special
cases even 1 µm.
• The most common preparation process is thin-film technology based
on sputtering, evaporation, chemical vapor deposition, spray
pyrolysis, chemical deposition, or laser ablation methods of forming
the sensing layer.
• Sensing layers in thin-film sensors have more dense structure in
comparison with thick-film sensors.
 Biosensors
• Apply micro/nano-technology to develop novel devices and systems
that have a biomedical impact or are bio-inspired
• A MEMS-based biosensor is a biosensor which is realized by
microfabrication technology and takes advantage of the small size.
• It incorporates a biological component with a physiochemical
transducer such as a microsystem.
• biosensors have been proposed for detecting tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell
receptors, enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, and so on.
• A biosensor consists of three parts as shown in Fig. 1: an analyte recognition element; a
transducer whose mechanism may be electrochemical, optical, thermometric, or
magnetic; and a readout element.
• At the analyte recognition element, the analyte is specifically recognized by a biologically
sensitive substance while other biological substances are not detected.
• The recognition leads to a specific change of the transducer which is subsequently
converted into a measurable form, generally an electrical signal, in the readout element.
• A biosensor can be classified by various standpoints such as its application field or its
transducing mechanism.
• It is also called a medical or environmental sensor when it is applied in the
corresponding field.
• The transducing mechanism may be electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, magnetic,
or acoustic.
• In this entry, a biosensor will be classified by its transducing mechanism such as
electrochemical, optical, etc.
• In the case of conventional biosensors, each of the three components
is realized separately and has different scientific backgrounds
• For example, biology, physics, chemistry, or medical science are the
main scientific fields for the analyte recognition element;
• mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineering for the transducer;
• and mechanical, electrical, electronic engineering, and physics for the
detection element.
• Due to well-established micromachining technology, the transducer
and readout elements are starting to be realized in a single device.
• Such a miniature device is called a MEMS biosensor
• The MEMS biosensor has many advantages such as small size, low
cost, sharply reduced power consumption, and enhanced usability.
• A good example is a microcantilever biosensor.
• This includes a readout element as well as a physical transducer.
• When an analyte is reacted with a recognition element which is
immobilized on the surface of the microcantilever, it induces chemical
stresses and subsequently bending of the microcantilever.
• This results in a change of electrical resistance which is due to a
piezoresistor integrated with the microcantilever.
• MEMS biosensors based on electrochemical methods can measure
quantitative concentrations of biochemicals in biological systems such
as immunological systems and glucose metabolism.
• They convert biochemical reactions to electrical signals.
• Changes in potential, conductance, and current between two
electrodes are the main parameters that are measured.
• Electrochemical methods are a dominant biosensing methodology
because of the simple structure and easy measurement compared
with other MEMS biosensors such as optical biosensors, acoustic
biosensors, and so on.
Typical Biosensor system
Reasons for miniaturization – why mems
BioMEMS materials
BIOSENSOR Fabrication
Bio MEMS examples