MEMS Microheater With Fast Electrothermal Response for Self-Destructing Chip Applications

With the advancement of micro-nano manufacturing technologies, microheaters have demonstrated significant application value in fields such as sensing, ignition, and self-destruction systems. This paper designs and fabricates a parallel necked Ni microbridge microheater based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), employing a Ti/Cu/Ni metal multilayer structure on a SiO₂/Si/SiO₂ substrate to achieve a compact, integrable device configuration. Finite element simulations revealed the temperature distribution and evolution patterns under different current conditions, which were subsequently validated experimentally. Test results demonstrated that the device rapidly heats up under constant current drive, reaching a maximum temperature exceeding 600°C at 1.8 A drive conditions, exhibiting excellent electrothermal response characteristics. Further integrated validation demonstrates that the proposed microheater structure can achieve stable and controllable triggering under system-level packaging conditions. Under a driving current of 3 A, the device completes the self-destruction process within 1 s, accompanied by pronounced current drop and voltage surge characteristics, indicating that the designed electrothermal structure can satisfy the ignition requirements of porous silicon energetic chips at the system level, thereby reflecting favorable structural compatibility and design rationality. [2025-0234]