Design optimization of microheater for gas sensor using genetic algorithm

Genetic Algorithms in the design of microheaters for gas sensors has become increasingly popular in recent years. This is due to their versatility and ability to perform an extensive search in complex multimodal search places. This paper studies about utilizing a genetic algorithm (GA) based software with a complete structural design and thermos-electromechanical and transient analysis using Intellisuite v8.2 s/w to optimize the physical design parameters of a microheater of a MEMS based gas sensor and to get the desired temperature (∼200oC) at minimum power consumption (∼140mW) within desired physical constraints.