Direct fabrication of thin film gold resistance temperature detection sensors on a curved surface using a flexible dry film photoresist and their calibration up to 450 °C

High efficiency heat exchangers, such as intercoolers and recuperators, are composed of complex and compact structures to enhance heat transfer. This limits the installation of conventional temperature sensors to measure the temperature inside the heat exchanger without flow disturbance. To overcome this limitation, we have developed a direct patterning method in which metal is sputtered onto a curved surface using film photoresist and the fabrication of thin film Au resistance temperature detection (RTD) temperature sensors. A photosensitive film resist has been used to overcome the difficulty of 3-dimensional photolithography on a curved surface. The film resist after 2-dimensional photolithography is laminated over an alumina rod which is deposited with Au as an RTD sensing material. The Au metal is etched chemically, and the film resist is removed to form the thin film Au-RTD temperature sensors. They are calibrated by measuring the resistance change against temperature in a thermally controlled furnace. The second order polynomial fit shows good agreement with the measured temperatures with a standard deviation of 0.02 for the temperature range of 20-450 degrees C.