Publications
Design and reliability optimization of a MEMS micro-hotplate for combustion of gaseous fuel
This report will detail the process by which the silicon carbide (SiC) microhotplate devices, manufactured by GE, were imaged using IR microscopy equipment available at Sandia. The images taken were used as inputs to a finite element modeling (FEM) process using the ANSYS software package. The primary goal of this effort was to determine a method to measure the temperature of the microhotplate. Prior attempts to monitor the device's temperature by measuring its resistance had proven to be unreliable due to the nonlinearity of the doped SiC's resistance with temperature. As a result of this thermal modeling and IR imaging, a number of design recommendations were made to facilitate this temperature measurement. The lower heating value (LHV) of gaseous fuels can be measured with a catalyst-coated microhotplate calorimeter. GE created a silicon carbide (SiC) based microhotplate to address high-temperature survivability requirements for the application. The primary goal of this effort was to determine a method to measure the temperature of the microhotplate. Prior attempts to monitor the device's temperature by measuring its resistance had proven to be unreliable due to the non-linearity of the doped SiC's resistance with temperature. In this work, thermal modeling and IR imaging were utilized to determine the operation temperature as a function of parameters such as operation voltage and device sheet resistance. A number of design recommendations were made according to this work.