Thermal bubble formation in the microscale is of importance for both scientific research and practical applications. A bubble generation system that creates individual, spherical vapor bubbles from 2 to 500 μm in diameter is presented. Line shape, polysilicon resistors with a typical size of 50 × 2 × 0.53 μm3 are fabricated by means of micromachining. They function as resistive heaters and generate thermal microbubbles in working liquids such as Fluorinert fluids (inert, dielectric fluids available from the 3M company), water, and methanol. Important experimental phenomena are reported, including Marangoni effects in the microscale; controllability of the size of microbubbles; and bubble nucleation hysteresis. A one-dimensional electrothermal model has been developed and simulated in order to investigate the bubble nucleation phenomena. It is concluded that homogeneous nucleation occurs on the microresistors according to the electrothermal model and experimental measurements.
Issue Section:
Micro-Scale Heat Transfer
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