Performance of Nano-Submicron-Stripe Pd Thin-Film Temperature Sensors

Abstract

Dozens of small dual-beam thin-film temperature sensors with a total width down to 430 nm were fabricated and tested. The sensors were all made from 90-nm-thick Pd thin films, where the width of the narrow stripes was 70–100 nm and that of the wide ones was 210–800 nm. Two different calibration methods showed consistent and repeatable sensitivities of 0.7–1.2 μV/K for the sensors, confirming that the sensitivity mainly depended on the width configuration of each sensor. By integrating arrays of such sensors on a practical testing platform using hybrid e-beam lithography and photolithography techniques, we demonstrated that these sensors were capable of detecting a weak surface temperature difference of 0.1–0.2 K at microscale, and they could be scaled up as built-in temperature sensors in many practical devices.