The 3ω technique has been applied to measure thermal properties of thin films and suspended wires. In this article, we report the implementation and technical design of a 3ω system to measure the thermal conductivity in small dimension structures. Alternating current is applied to a line heater that dissipates power and varies its resistance. The 3ω voltage drop across the heater provides information that determines the thermal properties of the heater or of the adjacent material. A differential bridge is used to subtract the first harmonic voltage and systematic noise. We introduce the use of a synchronous detector associated with the differential bridge to obtain the in-phase and out-of-phase components of the third harmonic signal. The combination improves the bridge method for a broad range of frequency analysis that permits either thermal conductivity and/or heat capacity measurements.