Fabrication of microheater by laser micro cladding electronic paste

The paper presents a direct-write technique named laser micro cladding electronic paste for rapid prototyping and manufacturing of microheaters. Microheaters (5 mm x 5 mm) have been successfully fabricated on alumina substrate. RuO2 thick film resistor paste was used as heating material. Thermal characterization of the microheaters has been investigated. These microheaters were suitable for a maximum long-term operation temperature of 400 deg. C. Cracking of the alumina substrate was observed at higher temperature. The heating and cooling rates of microheater were about 7 deg. C s-1 and 4 deg. C s-1, respectively. The results indicate that the microheater exhibits excellent thermal performance equivalent to those of traditional thick film screen-printed microheaters