The critical impact of temperature gradients on Pt filament failure

This work established the correlation between the location of temperature gradients and the positions where breakdown is observed on different Pt filament layouts in cantilever and full membrane type micro-hotplates. Focusing on practical aspects like in real operation, self-heating was applied to investigate the limitations of high temperature application and to reveal the fatal failure mechanisms. Besides electromigration, another phenomenon playing dominant role in the breakdown of the filaments, the temperature gradient driven thermomigration of Pt was identified. This limits the local allowable temperature gradient to < 0.4 °C/μm for operation temperature above 700 °C.