A novel thermal-bubble-based micromachined accelerometer

Author

Liao, Ke-Min ; Chen, Rongshun ; Chou, Bruce C S

Author_Institution

Dept. of Power Mech. Eng., Nat. Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

1

fYear

2005

Firstpage

519

Abstract

A novel micromachined accelerometer based on thermal-bubble technology is proposed and demonstrated. The only moving element in the accelerometer is a small thermal-bubble created by using a high flux heater to vaporize the liquid contained in the micro-chamber. The basic physical characteristics, including the heat transfer and fluid flow behavior of this sensor, are analyzed and discussed. The feasibility and performance of the proposed accelerometer are verified using numerical simulations and demonstrated experimentally using a designed test setup. The results conclude that the presented design has better response and higher sensitivity comparing to its counterparts.

Keywords

acceleration measurement; accelerometers; bubbles; flow; heat transfer; micromachining; microsensors; sensitivity; vaporisation; fluid flow behavior; heat transfer; high flux heater; liquid vaporization; micro-chamber; micromachined accelerometer; thermal-bubble-based accelerometer; Acceleration; Accelerometers; Costs; Defense industry; Fluid flow; Force measurement; Heat transfer; Temperature sensors; Testing; Thermal sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 2005. Digest of Technical Papers. TRANSDUCERS '05. The 13th International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8994-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2005.1496468

Filename

1496468