MICROMECHANICAL THERMAL SENSORS - COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND SIMULATIONS

In this article the results of a numerical simulation of the thermal a nd mechanical properties of micromechanical sensors are described. Fin ite element analysis is used to model the response of the composite ca ntilever to temperature variations. The simulations consider triangula r shaped cantilevers in air and water environments and under different configurations of thermal loading. The models utilize conditions from actual experiments which are conducted in parallel. Good agreement be tween numerical and experimental results studied so far allows us to u se our numerical simulation to confidently predict the performance of the sensor under novel operating conditions acid to optimize the senso r design for specific applications. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.