Experimental Study on a Micro Flow Sensor

미소 유량 센서에 관한 실험적 연구

  • 김태훈 (한국과학기술원 기계공학과 대학원) ;
  • 김성진 (한국과학기술원 기계공학과)
  • Published : 2004.04.28

Abstract

In the present paper, a micro flow sensor, which can be used at bio-delivery systems and micro heat pumps, is developed. For this, the micro flow sensor is integrated on a quartz wafer ($SiO_2$) and is manufactured by simple and convenient microfabrication processes. The micro flow sensor aims for measuring mass flow rates in the low range of about $0{\sim}20$ SCCM. The micro flow sensor is composed of temperature sensors, a heater, and a flow microchannel. The temperature sensors and the heater are manufactured by the sputtering processes in this study. In the microfabrication processes, stainless steel masks with different patterns are used to deposit alumel and chromel for temperature sensors and nichrome for the heater on the quartz wafer. The microchannel is made of Polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) easily. A deposited quartz wafer is bonded to the PDMS microchannel by using the air plasma. Finally, we confirmed the good operation of the present micro flow sensor by measuring flow rate.

Keywords