Fully coupled electro-thermal simulation of a micro pirani gauge

In this paper, fully coupled electro-thermal simulation of a micro pirani gauge is presented. The simulation was carried out using CFD-ACE+ software, based on Finite Volume Method (FVM) for multi-disciplinary modeling. Temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of silicon was taken into account for solving the joule heating and heat transfer equations. The influence of physical parameters on the dynamic range and sensitivity of micro pirani gauges was systematically studied for optimization. The simulation result was compared with and corrected by the performance of the micro pirani gauge fabricated by bulk micromachining technology.