A Novel CMOS Device Capable of Measuring Near-Field Thermal Radiation

We report on the design, fabrication, and characterization of a micro plane-plane geometry CMOS device, which has a heat emitter and a heat receiver, capable of studying the near-field radiative heat transfer at a 550 nm gap. Under high vacuum conditions, the heat emitter is heated by supplying driving currents and heated again after removing the heat receiver. The heating power difference between the two kinds of heating experiments indicates the existence of a proximity effect in the heat transfer between the emitter and the receiver. Our experiments pave the way towards overcoming the construction difficulty of plane-plane geometry with a nanometer gap.