Over the past two decades, significant progress in the thermal metrology for thin films and wires has enabled new understanding of the thermal conductivity of nanostructures. However, a large variation in the measured thermal conductivity of similar nanostructured samples has been observed. In addition to potential differences from sample-to-sample, measurement uncertainty contributes to the observed variation in measured properties. Many now standard micro/nanoscale thermal measurement techniques require extensive calibration of the properties of the substrate and support structures and this calibration contributes to uncertainty. Within this work, we develop a simple, direct differential electrothermal measurement of thermal conductivity of micro/nanoscale sample films by extending conventional steady state electrothermal approaches. Specifically, we leverage a cross-beam measurement structure consisting of a suspended, composite heater beam (metal on silicon) with the sample structure (silicon) extending at a right angle from the center of the heater beam, in a configuration similar to the T-type measurements used for fibers and nanotubes. To accurately resolve the thermal conductivity of the sample, the steady-state Joule heating response of the cross-beam structure is measured. Then, the sample is detached from the heater beam with a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) tool enabling direct characterization of the composite heater beam thermal properties. The differential measurement of the structure before and after FIB cut enables direct extraction of the sample thermal conductivity. The effectiveness of this differential measurement technique is demonstrated by measuring thermal conductivity of a 200 nm silicon layer. Additionally, this new method enables investigation of the accuracy of conventional approaches for extracting sample thermal conductivity with the composite beam structure and conventional comparative approaches. The results highlight the benefits of the direct differential method for accurate measurements with minimal assumptions.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
April 2017
Research Article|
April 04 2017
A direct differential method for measuring thermal conductivity of thin films
Yuqiang Zeng;
Yuqiang Zeng
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Purdue University
, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Amy Marconnet
Amy Marconnet
a)
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Purdue University
, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: [email protected].
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88, 044901 (2017)
Article history
Received:
October 03 2016
Accepted:
March 14 2017
Citation
Yuqiang Zeng, Amy Marconnet; A direct differential method for measuring thermal conductivity of thin films. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 April 2017; 88 (4): 044901. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4979163
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
Overview of the early campaign diagnostics for the SPARC tokamak (invited)
M. L. Reinke, I. Abramovic, et al.
An instrumentation guide to measuring thermal conductivity using frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR)
Dylan J. Kirsch, Joshua Martin, et al.
A glovebox-integrated confocal microscope for quantum sensing in inert atmosphere
Kseniia Volkova, Abhijeet M. Kumar, et al.
Related Content
Thermal characterization of microscale conductive and nonconductive wires using transient electrothermal technique
J. Appl. Phys. (March 2007)
Flow sensing by buckling monitoring of electrothermally actuated double-clamped micro beams
Appl. Phys. Lett. (August 2016)
Simultaneous measurements of the specific heat and thermal conductivity of suspended thin samples by transient electrothermal method
Rev. Sci. Instrum. (June 2009)
Simulations of electrothermal instability growth in solid aluminum rods
Phys. Plasmas (April 2013)
Analytical modeling of silicon thermoelectric microcooler
J. Appl. Phys. (July 2006)