High-thermal-impedance beams for suspended MEMS

Abstract

Suspended thermal MEMS is one of the major domains of application of CMOS-compatible bulk-micro machining technologies. In some applications, a tradeoff much be reached between the mechanical strength of the micro structure and the thermal losses through the support beams. This paper illustrates how suspended MEMS can be strengthened by means of additional support beams which have a very high thermal impedance, thus having a very small impact in the thermal behavior of the micro structure. A high thermal impedance beam can be considered as a new MEMS design cell. The use of this cell in the design of an electro thermal converter with long time constant is illustrated.