MicroConnex Thin Film Thermocouples

	Thin film thermocouples are fabricated by patterned sputtering onto a flexible circuit substrate.

	In this thin film thermocouple on a 50 um kapton substrate, the dark "L" is 0.2 um thick NiCr, sputtered onto the brighter Cu electrodes; the longer electrodes are 250 um wide and 1900 um long. The low thermal mass of the thin films provides excellent response times for temperature sensing.	An array of such thermocouples can be used as a thermopile, e.g. to scavenge waste heat for electrical power in remote sensing applications; the flexible substrate allows conformal mounting.