A dynamic thermal sensing mechanism with reconfigurable expanded-plane structures

Abstract

The precise measurement of temperature is crucial in various fields such as biology, medicine, industrial automation, energy management, and daily life applications. While in most scenarios, sensors with a fixed thermal conductivity inevitably mismatch the analogous parameter of the medium being measured, thus causing the distortion and inaccurate detection of original temperature fields. Despite recent efforts on addressing the parameter-mismatch issue, all current solutions are constrained to a fixed working medium, whereas a more universal sensor should function in a variety of scenes. Here, we report a dynamic and reconfigurable thermal sensor capable of highly accurate measurements in diverse working environments. Remarkably, thanks to the highly tunable thermal conductivity of the expanded-plane structure, this sensor works effectively on background mediums with a wide range of conductivity. Such a development greatly enhances the robustness and adaptability of thermal sensors, setting a solid foundation for applications in multi-physical sensing scenarios.