Abstract
Cells and living tissues slightly but always generate metabolic heat as long as they are alive. If the metabolic heat of a small number of cells can be monitored with improving a thermal sensing technology, it plays an important roll in bio-and medical-engineering. In this study, we tried to measure the metabolic heat of Yeast with a MEMS thermopile sensor to study the minimum metabolism detection level. The MEMS sensor showed a power sensitivity of 0.36V/W and a noise equivalent power of 5.6μW in a multi-layer insulation chamber with temperature controllers with a Peltier device and heater. The measured metabolic heat corresponded to 10^5〜10^6 cells, and growth curve of yeast fungus and resultant generation time were similar to general ones.
