A perforated plate stacked Si/glass heat exchanger with in-situ temperature sensing for joule-thomson coolers

Weibin Zhu, Michael J. White, Gregory F. Nellis, Sanford A. Klein, Yogesh B. Gianchandani
2008 Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on  
This paper reports a micromachined recuperative heat exchanger integrated with in-situ temperature sensors. In this design, numerous high-conductivity silicon plates, integrated with platinum resistance temperature detectors (Pt RTDs) are fabricated and stacked alternating with lowconductivity Pyrex spacers. The device is intended for use with Joule-Thomson (J-T) coolers. The fabricated versions of the device have a footprint of 1 1 cm 2 , and lengths of up to 2 cm. Tests at cryogenic
more » ... es (120-210 K) show that the effectiveness of the heat exchanger is as high as 0.785. In a preliminary J-T self-cooling test, the temperature at the expansion orifice dropped 13 K from the inlet temperature for an inlet pressure of 527 kPa (76 psia). The integrated Pt RTDs presented a sensitivity of 0.26%/K in the linear operational range of 150-300 K, but remained usable at temperatures below that range. Details regarding evaluation apparatus are discussed.
doi:10.1109/memsys.2008.4443788 fatcat:vt72zcnyxvfd7lyd7dht5mklxe