On a MEMS based dynamic remote temperature sensor using transverse vibration of a bi-layer micro-cantilever

In this paper a novel remote temperature sensor based on a bi-layer micro cantilever beam has been proposed, which can sense the temperature of a given heat source from a finite distance dynamically. Proposed sensor works based on radiation heat transfer and thermally induced vibration. In order to dispose a relationship between temperature of the heat source, and a sensible characteristic like as tunneling current or capacitance, thermo-mechanical behavior of such a structure has been investigated. Heat transfer equation of such a beam includes a nonlinear term due to the radiation heat transfer that has been solved numerically using Rung-Kutta explicit integration method. Galerkin based mode summation method has been utilized to solve the partial differential equation of the beam dynamics and the Houbolt implicit integrating method is used to solve obtained ordinary differential equations. Dynamic response to a step, and semi-harmonic excitations and frequency responses, for the proposed sensor with different geometrical or physical properties have been presented and discussed considering the temperature relaxation time of the sensor. In order to gain a semi explicit solution a perturbation method has been disposed and the results have been compared to the numerical direct integration ones, the accuracy and agreement are excellent.