2023 IEEE 7th Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering (ENBENG)

22-23 June, 2023. Porto, Portugal

A Numerical Study of the Heat Distribution

Generated by a Microheater in an Organ-on-a-Chip
Chamber
Gabriel M. Ferreira Paulo J. Sousa Vânia C. Pinto
Microelectromechanical Systems Microelectromechanical Systems Microelectromechanical Systems
Research Unit (CMEMS-UMinho), Research Unit (CMEMS-UMinho), Research Unit (CMEMS-UMinho),
LABBELS—Associate Laboratory, LABBELS—Associate Laboratory, LABBELS—Associate Laboratory,
2023 IEEE 7th Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering (ENBENG) | 979-8-3503-2257-6/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ENBENG58165.2023.10175328

University of Minho, INL-International University of Minho University of Minho

Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory Braga, Portugal Braga, Portugal
Braga, Portugal psousa@dei.uminho.pt vpinto@dei.uminho.pt
id10786@alunos.uminho.pt
Patrícia C. Sousa Graça Minas
Susana O. Catarino INL-International Iberian Microelectromechanical Systems
Microelectromechanical Systems Nanotechnology Laboratory, Research Unit (CMEMS-UMinho),
Research Unit (CMEMS-UMinho), Braga, Portugal LABBELS—Associate Laboratory,
LABBELS—Associate Laboratory, patricia.sousa@inl.int University of Minho
University of Minho Braga, Portugal
Braga, Portugal gminas@dei.uminho.pt
scatarino@dei.uminho.pt

Abstract— In an organ-on-a-chip (OoC), temperature must be
kept stable for a well-controlled and human representative
microenvironment. This work presents the numerical simulation of
a microheater to be integrated in a polydimethylsiloxane chamber
that will comprise an OoC. Numerical simulations were performed
to evaluate the heat distribution, considering the fluid flow and its
direction, the microheater and substrate materials, and the thickness
of the oxide layer (electric insulator), on top of the microheater.
Silicon (Si) and glass for the substrate, and platinum (Pt) and
aluminium (Al) for the microheater materials were evaluated.
Results showed that the Si substrate assured better heat uniformity
than glass, although reaching lower temperature values, for the same
input power. For the microheater, although Al achieved better heat
uniformity than Pt, it needed higher current to reach the same
temperatures (ranging from 35-45°C). The oxide layer thickness did
not affect the achieved temperature. The Si substrate/Pt microheater
microsystem was able to heat the fluid chamber up to the 35-45ᵒC
range, with current consumption from 0.06 A to 0.1 A, respectively,
showing good heat uniformity and low power consumption.
Regarding the fluid flow, the domain temperature decreases as the
flow rate increases, for the same actuation conditions. It was also
analysed the effect of the flux direction and it was observed that, at
120 µL/min, it did not affect the heat distribution in the chamber.
Keywords—Organ-on-a-chip, temperature, microheater,
COMSOL Multiphysics software.
I. INTRODUCTION
In order to better control and predict drug performance in in
vitro studies, the concept of organ-on-a-chip (OoC) has been
increasingly addressed. These microdevices are described as
new microfluidic devices capable of simulating the biological
and physiological behaviour of human tissues and organ
models [1]. In particular, such microdevices have been
explored in the area of cancer therapeutics, to help predict the
new drugs response. These devices require the control of
several parameters for the suitable cell culture growth
assuring a controlled and realistic microenvironment of the
cells, such as temperature, pH, oxygen, CO2, glucose and
lactase concentration [2], [3], [4]. When healthy and tumoral
organ models are used inside an OoC, with an integrated
sensing and actuation system, it will be possible to identify,
quantify and control with high sensitivity, at real-time and in-
situ the physicochemical parameters released during
chemotherapy assays. This precise monitoring is of utmost
importance for the prediction of the therapeutic drugs effect,
elucidating the role of individual variables, advantaging
speed, control, reproducibility and cost, in order to reduce,
refine and replace animal testing. For this application, the
OoC system must be able to operate in a target temperature
ranging 35°C to 45°C, in order to cover the optimal cell
growth temperatures, as well as hypothermia and
hyperthermia situations [5], [6].
Therefore, for a well-controlled microenvironment, it was
designed and simulated (using COMSOL Multiphysics
software) a microheater system to study the heat distribution
inside a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic
microchamber that comprises the cultured cells, representing
the OoC. The microheater was designed to be integrated into
the circular culture microchamber, as showed in Fig. 1.
The heating system was based on the joule effect, by applying
an electric current circulating in a conductive material [7].

979-8-3503-2257-6/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE 5

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Thus, this article presents the study of: the influence of the
microheater and the substrate materials; the thickness of the
insulating oxide layer; the applied current; and the liquid flow
parameters, on the temperature distribution inside the PDMS
chamber.
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the microheater integrated in the organ-
on-a-chip chamber.
II. METHODS
A. Numerical model
COMSOL Multiphysics software (version 5.3), based on
finite element analysis, was used to perform the numerical
simulations. To model the microheater, the numerical model
took into account the physical equations of different
phenomena: (1) heat transfer in solids and fluids; (2) electrical
current applied to the microheater (electric currents, shell
module); (3) fluid flowing through the chamber (laminar flow
module). Additionally, three multiphysics modules were
added to establish the connection between the referred
physical equations: Boundary Electromagnetic Heat Source,
Temperature Coupling and Flow Coupling Multiphysics.
In the electric current model, an input current was defined to
flow in the microheater through the terminal pads. Due to the
joule effect, the structure of the microheater, with 200 nm
thickness, undergoes heating. For the electric current
interface, the main equations are the following [8]:
∇. 𝐽 = 𝑄𝑗
𝐽 = 𝜎𝐸 + 𝐽𝑒
𝐸 = −∇𝑉
2
where 𝐽 is the current density (A/m ), 𝑄𝑗 is the external
current source, 𝜎 is the electrical conductivity (S/m), Je is the
externally generated current density (A/m2), E is the electric
field (V/m) and V (V) is the electric potential. The
temperature-dependent conductivity is described by:
1 (4)
𝜎=
𝜌0 (1 + 𝛼(𝑇 − 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑓 ))
where 𝜌0 is the resistivity at the reference temperature Tref
(K), α is the temperature coefficient of resistance and T (K) is
the temperature. In the heat transfer in solids interface, a thin
200 nm thickness metal layer was defined, responsible to
generate heat through the chamber and fluid. The main
equations that describe the heat transfer in solids [9]
(equations 5 and 6) and fluids (equations 7 and 8) are:
𝜕𝑇 𝑑𝑆 (5)
𝐶𝑝 ( + 𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠 . ∇𝑇) + ∇ . (𝑞 + 𝑞𝑟 ) = −𝛼𝑇: +𝑄
𝜕𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑆 (6)
𝑄𝑇𝑒𝑑 = 𝛼𝑇:
𝑑𝑡
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𝜕𝑇 (7)
𝜌𝐶𝑝 ( + 𝑢 . ∇𝑇) + ∇ . (𝑞 + 𝑞𝑟 )
𝜕𝑡
𝜕𝑝
= 𝛼𝑝 𝑇 ( + 𝑢. ∇𝑝) + 𝜏: ∇𝑢 + 𝑄
𝜕𝑡
where ρ (kg/m3) is the material density, Cp (J/(kg.K)) is the
solid heat capacity at constant pressure, u (m/s) represents the
velocity field, T (K) is the temperature, q is the heat flux by
conduction (W/m2), qr is the heat flux by radiation (W/m2), S
is the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor and Q (W/m3) is
the heat source (or sink). QTed represents the thermoelastic
damping, which accounts for the thermoelastic effects in
solids, p is the coefficient of thermal expansion (1/K) and 𝜏
is the viscous stress tensor (Pa). Regarding the boundary
conditions, convective heat flux (external natural convection)
was defined in the chamber walls and in the substrate
boundaries. The pressure and temperature initial conditions
were considered as 1 atm and 20ºC, respectively.
Finally, the laminar flow interface is characterized by the
Navier-Stokes continuity (equation 9) and momentum
(equation 10) equations [10]:
𝜌 𝛻.u = 0 (9)
𝜌
𝜕𝑢
+𝜌(u. 𝛻)u=𝛻. [−𝑝I+µ (𝛻𝑢 + (𝛻𝑢)𝑇 )] +F (10)
𝜕𝑡
where ρ is the density (kg/m3), u is the velocity vector (m/s),
p is pressure (Pa), I the identity matrix, μ the viscosity (Pa.s)
and F is the volume force vector (N/m3). Regarding the
boundary conditions, a flow rate was defined in the inlet
boundary, the outlet was defined as zero pressure and the
chamber walls as zero velocity.
B. Geometry and materials
The OoC circular chamber was designed in a 3D domain, as
(1) shown in Fig. 2a. The PDMS chamber has a 3 mm height and
(2) a 4 mm radius. The substrate presents a 600 µm thickness.
The microheater structure (Fig. 2b) was designed as a long
(3)
thin film with lines varying between 0.30 mm and 0.48 mm
width, with 200 nm thickness. Two materials were simulated:
aluminium and platinum. Their resistivity (𝜌0 ) at 20ᵒC and
temperature coefficient of resistance (α) are presented in table
I. It was also defined the fluid (water), the inlet and the outlet
regions (Fig. 2a), as well as the contact pads of the
microheater, as shown in Fig. 2b, where one represents the
ground and the other is the applied current terminal. The
mesh includes 2214539 tetrahedral elements.
Fig. 2. (a) Complete geometry of the organ-on-a-chip chamber (gray
domain) with the microheater (black boundary) on a substrate (orange
domain). Blue arrows represent the flow direction. (b) Top view (XY plane)
of the microheater geometry inside the PDMS chamber.
TABLE I. MICROHEATER MATERIAL PROPERTIES
Material 𝝆𝟎 (Ω.m)  (1/K)
Aluminium (Al) 2.650E-8 0.00429
Platinum (Pt) 12.447E-8 0.00385
6
C. Parameters under study
In the microheater, several values for the applied electrical
current were set to reach temperatures in the fluid ranging
between 35ᵒC to 45ᵒC, according to the different materials
simulated. Furthermore, the temperature variation was
studied for different fluid flow rates: 80, 120 and 300 µL/min
and different flow directions. It was also simulated the
thickness effect of an oxide layer on top of the substrate.
Here, silicon dioxide (SiO2) was used due to be an electrical
insulator and a good thermal conductor, so it is expected not
to affect the heating of the fluidic microchamber. All the
performed simulations are presented in table II.

TABLE II. MICROHEATER AND SUBSTRATE MATERIALS, OXIDE

THICKNESSES AND FLUID FLOW RATES SIMULATED IN COMSOL
MULTIPHYSICS

Oxide Fig. 3. Average temperature of fluid as a function of the applied current in

Flow rate each microheater, for flow rates of 80, 120 and 300 µL/min, considering
Microheater Substrate Thickness
(µL/min) glass and Si substrates and Pt and Al microheaters.
(nm)
No oxide
200 80, 120,
500
Silicon (Si) 300
Platinum (Pt) 1000
8000
Glass No oxide 120
Aluminium 80, 120,
Silicon (Si) No oxide
(Al) 300 Fig. 4. Heat distribution, in a XY plane, 1 mm above the substrate, generated
by a Si+Pt microheater, powered with a current of 0.07 A, for 80, 120 and
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 300 µL/min flow rates. The arrow represents the flow direction.

Fig. 3 presents the average temperature inside the chamber

for different applied electric currents (ranging from 0.06 A to
0.1 A), for platinum and aluminium microheaters and silicon
and glass substrates, for each flow rate presented in table II
(80, 120 and 300 µL/min). It is possible to compare the effect
of the substrate and microheater materials on the temperature
of the fluid inside the chamber. As expected, the temperature
decreases when the fluid flow increases. In Fig. 4 and 5, it is
visualized the heat distribution, 1 mm above the substrate
(Fig. 4) and the 3D heat distribution (Fig. 5) of the Si+Pt
Fig. 5. 3D heat distribution, generated by a Si+Pt microheater, when a 0.07
microheater, for each fluid flow rate, when a current of A current is applied, for 80, 120 and 300 µL/min flow rates. The arrow
0.07 A was applied. In both figures it is possible to observe a represents the flow direction.
greater heat drag with a 300 µL/min flow, i.e., as the flow rate
increases, the convective heat flux also increases, leading to
a higher temperature dissipation and consequently lower
temperature in the chamber area.
The substrate and microheater materials also affect the heat
distribution, as presented in Fig. 6. Due the high thermal
conductivity of silicon (34 W/m.K) in comparison with silica
glass (1.38 W/m.K), the heat distribution of silicon is more
uniform. Although, the glass substrate reaches higher
temperatures, the silicon substrate generates a greater
uniformity of heat distribution generated in the chamber
fluid. As previously observed in Fig. 3, the microheater
material also influences the fluid temperature. The
aluminium microheater reaches lower temperature values due
to the low electrical resistance of the aluminum. However, it Fig. 6. Substrate heat distribution, in the XY plane, for a 0.07 A current
has better heat uniformity than platinum, as demonstrated in applied in the microheaters, at a 120 µL/min flow rate, using: Glass substrate
Fig. 6. and Pt microheater; Silicon substrate and platinum microheater; Silicon
substrate and aluminum microheater.

7
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In addition to the substrate and microheater materials, the
oxide thickness was also studied for the platinum microheater
in a silicon substrate. However, for the simulated thicknesses
(see table II), the resultant temperatures only differed below
0.01ºC and, thus, the results did not show significant
differences.
Finally, due the position of the pads, the heat distribution
could be affected by the fluid direction. Hence, the fluid flow
was inverted in order to understand its influence on the heat
distribution. In Fig. 7, it is presented the temperature
distribution for two different possible flow directions. As
demonstrated for the 120 µL/min flow, the flux direction does
not present significant differences in the obtained heat
distribution.
Fig. 7. 3D heat distribution (top plots) and substrate heat distribution in XY
plane (bottom plots) of the Si+Pt microheater, for two different flow
directions, represented by the arrow. (a.1) and (a.2) have the same fluid
direction, and (b.1) and (b.2) have the same fluid direction.
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the design and simulation of a
microheater based on Joule effect and its heat distribution in
a PDMS organ-on-a-chip microchamber. COMSOL
Multiphysics numerical simulations were performed in order
to verify the influence of different parameters in the heat
distribution.
The simulation results showed that the higher the fluid flow,
the lower the temperature reached and the greater the heat
dragging in the fluid chamber. For the same applied electric
current, the silicon substrate, despite heating less than the
glass substrate, showed better results in terms of heat
distribution uniformity. The platinum microheater, for the
same current consumption, reached higher temperatures than
the aluminium microheater. However, the aluminium
microheater showed better results in terms of heat
distribution uniformity. Regarding the thickness of the oxide
(SiO2) layer and the direction of the fluid, there were no
significant differences in the results.
Considering all the presented results, the silicon substrate and
the platinum are the best options for the microheater
fabrication. They feature good heat distribution uniformity
and lower current consumption. In addition, the use of silicon
instead of glass also allows the integration of the organ-on-a-
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chip chamber with CMOS electronics, capable of controlling
the microheater and featuring other relevant sensors
(including temperature) [6].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by the project PTDC/EEI-
EEE/2846/2021 and partially by 2022.02165.PTDC, through
national funds (OE), within the scope of the Scientific
Research and Technological Development Projects (IC&DT)
program in all scientific domains (PTDC), through the
Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (FCT, I.P). The
authors also acknowledge the partial financial support within
the R&D Unit Project Scope: UIDB/04436/2020. Gabriel M.
Ferreira thanks FCT for his Ph.D. grant with reference
2022.10519.BD. Paulo Sousa, Vânia Pinto and Susana
Catarino thank FCT for their contracts funding provided
through 2021.01086.CEECIND, 2021.01087.CEECIND and
2020.00215.CEECIND, respectively.
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