A novel thermal position sensor integrated on a plastic substrate

Abstract

A thermal position sensor was fabricated and evaluated. The device consists of an array of temperature sensing elements, fabricated entirely on a plastic substrate. A novel fabrication technology was implemented which allows direct integration with read out electronics and communication to the macro-world without the use of wire bonding. The fabricated sensing elements are temperature sensitive Pt resistors with an average TCR of 0.0024/C. The device realizes the detection of the position and the motion of a heating source by monitoring the resistance variation of the thermistor array. The application field of such a cost-effective position sensor is considered quite extensive.