Application Cases

Experiment Name: Application of Power Amplifiers in Micro-Heaters

Research Direction: Micro-heater heating, exploring temperature variations under different signal conditions

Experimental Content:
Investigating the response of micro-heaters under single-pulse signals with varying pulse widths and voltages. The experimental system primarily includes a signal generator, a power amplifier (ATA-105), probes, an Olympus microscope system, and a CCD imaging system. By applying electrical signals to the micro-heater, changes in the sample are observed under the microscope for open-ended research. For example, the temperature gradient effect of large structures can generate array filters, while the highly uniform temperature of small structures can produce structurally colored samples. As the size of the micro-heater increases, the required signal voltage becomes higher. Conventional signal generators can only output up to 10V, whereas the power amplifier plays a crucial role by boosting the maximum voltage to 15V.

Testing Equipment: Signal generator, ATA-105 power amplifier, probes, microscope, CCD, etc.

Experimental Procedure:
Different single-pulse signals were applied to the micro-heater using a combination of a signal generator and a power amplifier. The signals were delivered to the chip via two probes. First, the signal voltage was fixed at 12V, and the pulse width was gradually increased from 100ms to 1s to observe the micro-heater's response. Then, the signal pulse width was fixed at 0.5s, and the voltage was increased from 6V in increments of 0.5V up to 15V to observe the micro-heater's response. The effects on the micro-heater were observed through the microscope, and the results were recorded using the CCD. The experimental results were documented by correlating the parameters of different signals with the corresponding responses of the micro-heater.

Experimental Results:

The signals amplified by the power amplifier caused the micro-heater to generate different temperatures, which in this experiment manifested as distinct colors in the microstructure. For smaller micro-heaters, different electrical signals corresponded to different color responses. For larger micro-heaters, due to the temperature difference between the center and the periphery, a temperature gradient was established, corresponding to a gradual color change. This enabled the creation of "rainbow" structures and "electronic firework" effects. Additionally, this phenomenon could be leveraged to fabricate dozens or even hundreds of filter arrays simultaneously.

Figure: ATA-100 Power Amplifier Specifications and Parameters