Characterization and Modeling of an Electro-thermal MEMS Structure

Abstract

Thermal functional circuits are an interesting and perspectivic group of the MEMS elements. A practical realization is called Quadratic Transfer Characteristic (QTC) element which driving principle is the Seebeck-effect. In this paper we present the analyses of a QTC element from different perspectives. To check the real behavior of the device, we measured a few, secondary properties of the structure which correspond to special behavior because these properties can not be easily derived from the main characteristics.