Nanowire hydrogen gas sensor employing CMOS micro-hotplate

In this paper we present a novel hydrogen gas sensor comprising a high temperature SOI-MOS micro-hotplate and employing zinc oxide nanowires as the sensing material. The micro-hotplates were fabricated at a commercial SOI foundry followed by a backside deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) at a commercial M...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ali, S.Z., Santra, S., Haneef, I., Schwandt, C., Kumar, R.V., Milne, W.I., Udrea, F., Guha, P.K., Covington, J.A., Gardner, J.W., Garofalo, V.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Energy consumption
Etching
Foundries
Gas detectors
Hydrogen
Infrared heating
Micromechanical devices
Shape
Temperature sensors
Zinc oxide
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Summary:In this paper we present a novel hydrogen gas sensor comprising a high temperature SOI-MOS micro-hotplate and employing zinc oxide nanowires as the sensing material. The micro-hotplates were fabricated at a commercial SOI foundry followed by a backside deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) at a commercial MEMS foundry. Particular care was taken in designing the heater shape using a systematic parametric approach to achieve excellent temperature uniformity (within 1-2%) as shown by both simulations and experimental infrared imaging results. Zinc oxide nanowires were grown on these devices and show promising responses to hydrogen with a response (R a /R h ) of 50 at 100 ppm in argon. The devices possess a low D.C. power consumption of only 16 mW at 300°C and, being CMOS compatible, offer low unit cost in high volumes and full circuit integration. We believe that these devices have potential for application as a sub-1 hydrogen sensor with sub-1mW (pulsed mode) power consumption.
ISSN:1930-0395
2168-9229
DOI:10.1109/ICSENS.2009.5398224