Design and fabrication of screen printed microheater

This paper presents the design and fabrication of a low-cost series microheater which works on the principle of Joule heating. The conducting silver-ink (LOCTITE ECI 1010 E & C) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet are used as a resistive material for the heating circuit and the substrate respectively. The poor thermal conductivity and high electrical resistivity of the PET sheet are advantageous in achieving the excellent heat confinement. Conventional screen printing is used to fabricate the microheater. Screen printing offers high yield with low turnaround time and fabrication can be done with minimum facilities. The maximum operating temperature of microheater is 100 ^∘C , and it may have promising application in the bio-medical analysis. To improve the thermal uniformity, a 100 μm thick glass coverslip is glued on the heater surface. The influence of supply voltage and time on heater temperature profile is predicted using commercial FEM simulation tool—COMSOL Multiphysics. There is good agreement between the measured and simulation results.