A Multi-Purpose Temperature Control Method for MEMS Microheaters Without a Separate Temperature Sensor

In this paper, a temperature-controlled method that does not use a separate temperature sensor is presented for different MEMS electrical resistance heaters. Instead of using a Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD) sensor or micro-thermocouple for closed-loop control of the temperature, which will have a finite distance between the heater and sensor and a response delay due to the thermal mass of the substrate on which the sensor resides, we use the change in resistance with temperature of the electrical heating element itself for the control input.