A novel two-dimensional thermal-convection based MEMS acoustic vector sensor

An acoustic vector sensor is an important sensor for capturing sound field information. In various applications, a precise integrated 2D sensor is desired, but manufacturing remains challenging. A novel 2D thermal convection based acoustic vector sensor is introduced, which consists of crossed multiple wires. The central crossed wire acts as a heater and the four right-angle shape wires act as thermal detectors. Based on this design, the sensor provides higher sensitivity and a direct two-dimensional acoustic particle velocity measurement. The sensor is optimized by numerical simulation and then fabricated using MEMS process. Finally, experiments have demonstrated that the device has good sensitivity response and orthogonal characteristics.