A Dual-Axis Micro Thermal Convective Tilt Sensor with High Sensitivity and Low Cross-Axis Effect

This work presents a dual-axis micro thermal convective tilt <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\mu \text{TCT})$</tex> sensor characterized by high sensitivity and low cross-axis effect. Based on the design optimization via the proposed 2D model, a <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mu \text{TCT}$</tex> sensor was fabricated and experimentally evaluated, demonstrating excellent normalized sensitivities of 11.41 mV/°/mW and 13.07 mV/°/mW on x-axis and y-axis, respectively, which exceed the previous micro tilt sensors by >3 times. Notably, the measured output deviation of the sensor matched well with the theoretical predictions, thereby confirming the feasibility of the proposed design strategy. Within the linear working range of the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mu \text{TCT}$</tex> sensor, an in-depth investigation on the cross-axis effect revealed that the coupling effects between the x-axis and y-axis <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\delta)$</tex> remained below 5%. These advancements establish the developed <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mu \text{TCT}$</tex> sensor as a highly promising candidate for industrial IoT applications, combining high sensitivity with superior cross-axis decoupling performance.