This paper is a preliminary study for measurement of thermal conductivity of liquids with infinitesimal samples, which is much smaller than that required in conventional methods. A 50 nm-thick microbeam-type MEMS sensor fabricated across a trench on a silicon substrate was assumed to be submerged in a liquid sample. Numerical analysis of heat conduction within and around the uniformly-heated sensor showed that the temperature of the sensor reached a steady state within approximately 0.1ms, which was significantly shorter than the onset of natural convection. It was also revealed that the average temperature of the sensor at the steady state was higher in liquids with lower thermal conductivity. We therefore proposed a novel method to measure the liquid thermal conductivity at a steady state within an extremely short time, and discussed the measurement accuracy as well as dimensions required for a sensor.
A spectral emittance of a ceramic plate coated with a rare-earth oxide thin film was investigated through one dimensional radiative transfer analysis. The emittance in the absorption bands around 1μm and 1.5μm increases with the film thickness, and then, approaching to the almost maximum value under the conditions of a 0.2mm film thickness and a 1mm substrate thickness.