High-sensitivity chip calorimeter platform for sub-nano watt thermal measurement

•High-sensitivity, on-chip calorimeter platform is developed.•Temperature sensitive vanadium pentoxide thermistor is used as a thermal sensor.•Vacuum insulated suspended membrane platform has a low thermal conductance of 12 μW/K.•Estimated noise equivalent power limit is as low as 570 pW in a 1 Hz bandwidth.•Feasibility of integrating the platform with a microfluidic system is investigated and a further lowering of detection limit to 150 pW is examined by numerical simulations.

High sensitivity, on-chip calorimeter platform using V2O5 thin film thermistor was developed. Integration of a V2O5 thermistor with a high temperature sensitivity of −2.2%/K with a vacuum insulated, suspended SiN membrane structure enabled a low thermal conductance of 12 μW/K and a direct detection of 10 nW of heat with an estimated detection limit of 570 pW. We also investigated the feasibility of integrating the platform with a microfluidic system, and, suggest that, based on numerical simulations, a further 5-fold lowering of detection limit may be possible.