A Novel Vanadium Dioxide-Based Dual-Heater Microfluidic Thermal Flow Sensor With Record High Sensitivity
A Novel Vanadium Dioxide-Based Dual-Heater Microfluidic Thermal Flow Sensor With Record High Sensitivity
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DOI：
10.1109/jsen.2023.3251662
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发表时间：
2024-03
影响因子：
4.3
通讯作者：
Yunqi Cao;Yushan Zhou;Shuyu Fan;Haozhen Chi;N. Sepúlveda;D. Hou;Hongjian Zhang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Yunqi Cao;Yushan Zhou;Shuyu Fan;Haozhen Chi;N. Sepúlveda;D. Hou;Hongjian Zhang
高灵敏度的流量测量技术是实现微流体精确动态控制的前提。尽管在结构优化方面取得了进展，但可以通过利用具有较高电阻温度系数（TCR）的材料来实现提高器件灵敏度的更有效方法。本工作提出了一种基于二氧化钒（VO 2）的微流控热流传感器的设计和模拟，具有创纪录的高灵敏度。由于其相变特性，VO 2在主要的加热和冷却曲线中分别表现出-0.703和0. 63\，\，\text {K}^{-{1}}$的最大TCR，这比常用的热敏材料高出两个数量级以上。为了充分利用VO 2的高热敏性，提出了一种具有增强温差效应的双加热器配置，并在低于10 μ L的流量范围内评估了其传感性能。通过在主要磁滞回线的临界转变温度下单独操作VO 2热传感器，灵敏度可高达2.79 V/ $\mu \text{L} \cdot $ min $^{-{1}}$，分别比基于VO 2的风速计和基于Pt的双加热器量热（DHC）传感器高出约187.88倍和277.89倍。本工作的研究可能会在使用非标准超材料改善超低流量区域的高性能微流体热流量传感器方面取得突破。
High-sensitivity flow measurement technology is a prerequisite for precise dynamic control of microfluidics. Despite the advances in structure optimization, a more efficient approach to improve device sensitivity can be realized by leveraging materials with a higher temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR). This work presents the design and simulation of a vanadium dioxide (VO2)-based microfluidic thermal flow sensor with record high sensitivity. Owing to the phase change property, VO2 demonstrates the maximum TCR of −0.703 and $-0.63\,\,\text{K}^{-{1}}$ in the major heating and cooling curves, respectively, which is more than two orders of magnitude higher than commonly used thermal-sensitive materials. To fully utilize the high thermal sensitivity of VO2, a dual-heater configuration with enhanced thermal differential effect is proposed, and its sensing performance is evaluated in the flow range below $10 \mu \text{L} \cdot $ min $^{-{1}}$ . By individually operating the VO2 thermal sensors at critical transition temperatures in the major hysteresis loop, the sensitivity can reach as high as 2.79 V/ $\mu \text{L} \cdot $ min $^{-{1}}$ , which is about 187.88 times and 277.89 times higher than the VO2-based anemometer and the Pt-based dual-heater calorimetric (DHC) sensor, respectively. The research in the present work may enable a breakthrough in the improvement of high-performance microfluidic thermal flow sensors in the ultralow flow region using nonstandard metamaterials.