Micromachined thermal imaging mesh for conformal sensing system

In this paper we present the development of micromachined thermal imaging mesh for conformal sensing system. The imaging mesh consists of an m-by-n matrix of gold thermal resistor network. The sensing and processing scheme allows us to image the presence of a localized heat source over a broad piece of imaging mesh. At the same time, this approach dramatically reduces the number of sensors hence the wiring required to image a given area. The mesh is fabricated on a piece of freestanding flexible polyimide fabric. Serpentine structure is specially designed to improve the conformability of the fabric to 3D objects. Thermal imaging data are presented in this paper