MEMS Heat Flux Sensor

Heat flux sensors have potential in enabling applications that require tracking of direct and instantaneous thermal energy transfer. To facilitate their use, the sensors have to be robust and feasible to implement, while maintaining high sensitivity and a fast response time. However, most commercially available heat flux sensors are expensive to manufacture and have insufficient temporal responses. In this paper, a novel microelectromechanical heat flux sensor structure is proposed. The electrical performance of the prototype sensors is compared with commercially available heat flux sensors. Preliminary results show that our sensors have similar sensitivity and faster response compared to commercial sensors.