Sensitivity Improvement of Thermal Expansion-Based Angular Motion Sensors with the Parallel Distribution of Heaters

In this paper, we present a novel structural design of thermal expansion-based angular motion (TEAM) sensors based on a systematic comparative study to improve the sensitivity. Compared with the traditional TEAM sensor design with the Heaters oriented Perpendicular to the temperature detectors (abbreviated to PeH), the novel structural design employs the Heaters Parallel to the detectors (PaH). The dominant superiority of the novel design is the sensitivity enhancement without increasing the chip area and power consumption, which can be attributed to the higher thermal working efficiency of heaters based on the analysis of the proposed 2D model. Experimental tests under the angular rate range of 0 ~ 2520°/s show that the sensitivity of a TEAM sensor can be enhanced by more than 65% to 0.4856 mV/°/s by adopting the novel PaH design instead of the traditional PeH design. Therefore, the proposed PaH TEAM sensor will be a promising device for future industrial IoT applications.