Development of a high throughput micro-heater array with controllable temperature for each heating unit

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a high throughput micro-heater array in which the temperature of each heating unit can be controlled separately and independently. First, a micro-heater with 3-layer structure is designed and the optimization is made to simplify the wire connection within the micro-heater array to compact the device size. For the device fabrication, the 3 × 3 micro-heater array is fabricated using MEMS fabrication technology. Furthermore, a novel two-state method is developed to control the heating pattern of the device with outstanding advantages. With this method, heating units in the array can be selectively heated and each unit can be well-controlled simultaneously under different temperatures. Measurement results demonstrate the good performance of the micro-heater unit and functionality of the micro-heater array device, which can be applied to versatile fields with a promising future.