Design and fabrication of micro heat flux sensor

A novel micro heat flux sensor which can measure small heat flux has been designed, fabricated, and tested in a convective environment. The micro heat flux sensor receives the heat flux from the wall through the contact gold film, then the received heat flows along the thermal path and drains out to the environment producing a temperature difference along its paths. At that time, the heat flux from the wall can be measured from the temperature difference between thermocouple junctions of a nickel-chrome pair. The micro heat flux sensor is designed in the form of a circular foil gauge. Thermal resistance of the micro heat flux sensor is perpendicular to the heat flux of the wall to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. The calibration is accomplished under a convective environment. The sensitivity of the micro heat flux sensor is in the range of 0.1/spl sim/10 /spl mu/V/(mW/cm/sup 2/) under the heat flux condition of 20/spl sim/350 mW/cm/sup 2/.