A fast and highly sensitive nano-calorimeter

The main goal of the pilot project NanoCal was the research, manufacturing and test of a fast and highly sensitive multi-parameter differential scanning nanocalorimeter for the analysis of the dynamics of protein folding or relaxation times of lipid-membranes. Within this project the basis for the development of a micro-structured calorimeter chip was established. The sensitivity of such a chip should be similar to that of modern calorimeters, but due to the miniaturisation the system needs not only less quantities of analyte but features also a faster response time. First chips were made on 4"-wafers. The noise limit for temperature measurements was 75 muK, which corresponds to a power resolution of 2 muW. Based on the data derived, the performance of the calorimeter chip can now be improved by a redesign.