Thermal fluid flow sensor and method of forming same technical field

摘要

A thermal fluid flow sensor and method of forming same. The flow sensor has an integrated circuit substrate, such as a silicon substrate, and a region of low thermal conductivity material carried on the top surface of the integrated circuit substrate. One or more pairs of temperature sensing elements are disposed on the low thermal conductivity region together with a heating element so that a robust flow sensor can be provided at low cost. Signal conditioning circuitry is disposed on the same surface as the temperature sensing elements and connected to the sensing elements thereby further reducing costs and improving the flow sensor sensitivity.