微结构气体传感器的优化设计

利用SiO2相对于SiNx有更低的热导率,作为膜式微气体传感器的热绝缘和电绝缘层,而单晶Si适合通过各向异性腐蚀形成倒杯状结构来支撑SiO2膜。将膜式微气体传感器中的加热器和信号电极设计在一个平面上,以减小工艺复杂度,获得较高的加热效率。利用有限元分析工具ANSYS分析比较加热器和信号电极在不同宽度与间距时的温度分布。当设定加热器宽度为50μm,信号电极宽度50μm,加热器和信号电极间距为25μm,微气体传感器将获得更低的功耗和比较均匀的中心温度分布,有利于传感器整体性能的提高。     

MEMS-based formaldehyde gas sensor integrated with a micro-hotplate

This paper presents a novel micro-fabricated formaldehyde gas sensor with enhanced sensitivity and detection resolution capabilities. The device comprises a quartz substrate with Pt heaters as a micro-hotplate and deposited formaldehyde-sensing layer on it. A sputtered NiO thin film is used as the formaldehyde-sensing layer. A specific orientation of NiO becomes more apparent as the substrate temperature increases in the sputtering process, which helps the formation of NiO material with a correct stoichiometric ratio. The gas sensor incorporates Pt heating resistors integrated with a micro-hotplate to provide a heating function and utilizes Au inter-digitated electrodes. When formaldehyde is present in the atmosphere, oxydation happens near the sensing layer with a high temperature caused by the micro-hotplate and causes a change in the electrical conductivity of the NiO film. Therefore, the measured resistance between the inter-digitated electrodes changes correspondingly. The application of a voltage to the Pt heaters causes the temperature of the micro-hotplate to increase, which in turn enhances the sensitivity of the sensor. The nanometer scale grain size of the sputtered oxide thin film is conducive to improving the sensitivity of the gas sensor. The experimental results indicate that the developed device has a high stability (0.23%), a low hysteresis value (0.18%), a quick response time (13.0 s), a high degree of sensitivity (0.14 Ω ppm⁻¹), and a detection capability of less than 1.2 ppm.

     

Sol–gel grown Pd modified WO3 thin film based methanol sensor and the effect of annealing temperatures

In this paper, Pd modified WO₃ thin film methanol sensor has been developed by sol–gel method. WCl₆ chemical compound is used as a precursor. Spin coating method is employed for the preparation of the WO₃ thin film on the Si substrate. The crystalline structure of the WO₃ thin film is analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. The thin film sensor is fabricated at different annealing temperatures (400, 600 and 800 °C). The response magnitude of the WO₃ thin film is studied at different operating temperatures (100–300 °C). It is observed that the operating temperature of Pd modified thin film sensor is 200 °C. It is also noticed that the maximum response magnitude of Pd modified WO₃ thin film sensor is found at the annealing temperature of 600 °C. It is found that Pd modified WO₃ thin film sensor are suitable for methanol vapour detection compare to unmodified WO₃ thin film senor.

     

基于环形微热板的ZnO微气体传感器设计

提出一种新型的设有环形结构微热板的硅基ZnO微气体传感器。利用ANSYS软件,将环形电极结构与传统的蛇形结构进行温度分布的模拟仿真,发现该结构能供给传感器更高的温度且中心温度分布均匀,进而解决了现有传感器功耗大的缺点。通过对RF磁控溅射ZnO薄膜的工艺摸索,得出了适宜作气敏薄膜的制备参数。该传感器在250℃下对（200-1000）×10-6CH4气体有很好的响应。     

H2 sensing properties of diode-type gas sensors fabricated with Ti- and/or Nb-based materials

A thermally oxidized TiO₂ or Nb₂O₅ film equipped with a top Pd film electrode and a bottom Ti or Nb plate electrode (Pd/MO(n)/M, MO: oxide film, M: metal plate, n: annealing temperature (°C)) has been investigated as a diode-type H₂ sensor under air or N₂ atmosphere. Pd/TiO₂(n)/Ti sensors showed relatively poor H₂ sensing properties in air, in comparison with Pd/anodic-TiO₂(n)/Ti sensors constructed with an anodized TiO₂ film equipped with a top Pd film electrode and a bottom Ti plate electrode, which were reported in our previous studies. On the other hand, Pd/Nb₂O₅(n)/Nb sensors showed relatively larger H₂ response with fast response and recovery speeds than Pd/TiO₂(n)/Ti sensors in air under high forward bias conditions. A Pd/Nb₂O₅(450)/Ti sensor, which was fabricated by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering of Nb metal on a Ti substrate followed by thermal oxidation at 450 °C, showed the largest H₂ response and relatively fast response and recovery speeds in air, among the sensors tested. In addition, H₂ response of the Pd/Nb₂O₅(450)/Ti sensor in air was much lower than that in N₂, but the logarithm of H₂ response was almost proportional to the logarithm of H₂ concentration in a wide range of H₂ concentration (10–8000 ppm) in air, and the H₂ sensitivity in air was much higher than that in N₂.     

Low power highly sensitive platform for gas sensing application

This paper reports a low power miniaturized MEMS based integrated gas sensor with 36.84 % sensitivity (ΔR/R₀) for as low as 4 ppm (NH₃) gas concentration. Micro-heater based gas sensor device presented here consumes very low power (360 °C at 98 mW/mm²) with platinum (Pt) micro-heater. Low powered micro-heater is an essential component of the metal oxide based gas sensors which are portable and battery operated. These micro-heaters usually cover less than 5 % of the gas sensor chip area but they need to be thermally isolated from substrate, to reduce thermal losses. This paper elaborates on design aspects of micro fabricated low power gas sensor which includes ‘membrane design’ below the microheater; the ‘cavity-to-active area ratio’; effect of silicon thickness below the silicon dioxide membrane; etc. using FEM simulations and experimentation. The key issues pertaining to process modules like fragile wafer handling after bulk micro-machining; lift-off of platinum and sensing films for the realization of heater, inter-digitated-electrodes (IDE) and sensing film are dealt with in detail. Low power platinum microheater achieving 700 °C at 267 mW/mm² are fabricated. Temperature calculations are based on experimentally calculated thermal coefficient of resistance (TCR) and IR imaging. Temperature uniformity and localized heating is verified with infrared imaging. Reliability tests of the heater device show their ruggedness and repeatability. Stable heater temperature with standard deviation (σ) of 0.015 obtained during continuous powering for an hour. Cyclic ON–OFF test on the device indicate the ruggedness of the micro-heater. High sensitivity of the device for was observed for ammonia (NH₃), resulting in 40 % response for ~4 ppm gas concentration at 230 °C operating temperature.     

Development and application of micromachined Pd/SnO2 gas sensors with zeolite coatings

Zeolite A (LTA)-coated micromachined sensors have been prepared and used in the sensing of individual gases (H₂, CH₄, C₂H₅OH, C₃H₈ and CO, in the 10–1000 ppm range) and gas mixtures. Unlike previous works with conventional sensors, a hydrothermal synthesis was not used to prepare a zeolite film. Instead, a zeolite coating was formed on top of the Pd/SnO₂ surface by microdropping from a zeolite suspension. In spite of this, the response of the sensor with zeolite is significantly different from that of unmodified sensors, and essentially reproduces the performance of zeolite-coated conventional sensors. By avoiding the use of a hydrothermal synthesis the integrity of the sensor is better preserved, and the resulting non-continuous zeolite film has the added advantage of a strong reduction in response times.     

基于γ-Al_2O_3膜微加工煤油传感器研究

基于半导体式气体传感原理,提出了利用MEMS技术将电化学生长的Al2O3膜加工成微热板结构载体,采用平面薄膜工艺制做Pt薄膜加热电阻和信号电极。在微热板的2个电极上,涂敷γ-Fe2O3-SnO2-Pt-Pd形成煤油蒸气敏感单元,实现在微结构体上气体检测的二单元集成。传感器采用脉冲工作方式,工作周期为30 s,在加热峰值形成高温400℃的煤油检测条件。测试结果表明:煤油(标志物:癸烷)检测可实现体积分数(0～7000)×10-6范围,90%的吸附响应时间小于8s,脱附响应时间小于12s,传感器信号输出与煤油体积分数有对应的全对数线性关系。     

MEMS-based formaldehyde gas sensor integrated with a micro-hotplate

This paper presents a novel micro-fabricated formaldehyde gas sensor with enhanced sensitivity and detection resolution capabilities. The device comprises a quartz substrate with Pt heaters as a micro-hotplate and deposited formaldehyde-sensing layer on it. A sputtered NiO thin film is used as the formaldehyde-sensing layer. A specific orientation of NiO becomes more apparent as the substrate temperature increases in the sputtering process, which helps the formation of NiO material with a correct stoichiometric ratio. The gas sensor incorporates Pt heating resistors integrated with a micro-hotplate to provide a heating function and utilizes Au inter-digitated electrodes. When formaldehyde is present in the atmosphere, oxydation happens near the sensing layer with a high temperature caused by the micro-hotplate and causes a change in the electrical conductivity of the NiO film. Therefore, the measured resistance between the inter-digitated electrodes changes correspondingly. The application of a voltage to the Pt heaters causes the temperature of the micro-hotplate to increase, which in turn enhances the sensitivity of the sensor. The nanometer scale grain size of the sputtered oxide thin film is conducive to improving the sensitivity of the gas sensor. The experimental results indicate that the developed device has a high stability (0.23%), a low hysteresis value (0.18%), a quick response time (13.0 s), a high degree of sensitivity (0.14 Ω ppm^?1), and a detection capability of less than 1.2 ppm.     

激光微加工制作纳米气敏传感器阵列的工艺及特性研究

利用脉冲YAG激光微加工方法,在三氧化二铝陶瓷基片上一面集成了RuO2加热器,另一面集成了四单元电极制备了纳米气敏传感器阵列.对阵列的加热特性、热响应、温度分布及气敏性能作了深入的探讨.阵列单元平均能耗低于500 mW、热响应速度小于20 s、平面温度梯度小于5℃/mm、能充分拾取气敏材料的气敏信息,阵列气敏性能稳定性、重现性好.研究表明激光微加工方法制作纳米气敏传感器阵列是一种可控性好、灵活、方便、廉价的制作方法.     

Design and fabrication of micro-nano fusion gas sensor based on two-beam micro-hotplatform

Micro-nano fusion gas sensors integrating two-beam micro-hotplatform with nanostructured porous film were fabricated in this study. The micro-hotplatform (MHP) was manufactured using standard micro-electro-mechanical systems technology in wafer runs. Based on a colloidal crystal template method, highly ordered porous tin dioxide films were in situ grown on the MHP. The as-fabricated sensors achieved the highest response at 250 °C with power consumption only 24 mW. Due to the low thermal capacity and ordered porous thin films of the sensor, the response time was about 2 s. The sensors are sensitive to ethanol in a large range from 0.1 to 250 ppm. The developed sensor here with high performance is an excellent candidate which can be incorporated into portable devices for alcohol detection such as breath analyzers.

     

SnO2 thin film sensor with enhanced response for NO2 gas at lower temperatures

Semiconducting SnO₂ thin films having higher value of electrical conductivity have been deposited using RF sputtering technique in the reactive gas environment (30% O₂ + 70% Ar) using a metallic tin (Sn) target for detection of oxidizing NO₂ gas. The effect of growth pressure (12-18 mTorr) on the surface morphology and structural property of SnO₂ film was studied using Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) respectively. Film deposited at 16 mTorr sputtering pressure was porous with rough microstructure and exhibits high sensor response (∼2.9 × 10⁴) towards 50 ppm NO₂ gas at a comparatively low operating temperature (∼100 °C). The sensor response was found to increase linearly from 1.31 × 10² to 2.9 × 10⁴ while the response time decrease from 12.4 to 1.6 min with increase in the concentration of NO₂ gas from 1 to 50 ppm. The reaction kinetics of target NO₂ gas on the surface of SnO₂ thin film at the Sn sites play important role in enhancing the response characteristics at lower operating temperature (∼100 °C). The results obtained in the present study are encouraging for realization of SnO₂ thin film based sensor for efficient detection of NO₂ gas with low power consumption.     

A 0.6 V 117 nW high performance energy efficient system-on-chip (SoC) CMOS temperature sensor in 0.18 µm CMOS for aerospace applications

This research article presents and describes a novel design with improved performance low power consumption threshold voltage based CMOS thermal sensor for aerospace applications. The proposed temperature sensor utilizes the change in behavior of threshold voltage of MOSFET with variation in temperature. The challenge while designing the temperature sensor was to achieve the linearize output voltage with respect to change in temperature. Process corner analysis has been done to check the robustness of the circuit while performance analysis and sensitivity of the temperature sensor have been verified in the occurrence of parasitic. The proposed temperature sensor is featured with low power consumption, less power supply voltage utilization, high performance and sensitivity with inaccuracy as low as possible. The presented temperature sensor utilizes an active area of 18 µm × 9.85 µm with 117 nW power consumption. An improved linear performance with an inaccuracy of merely − 0.01 to + 0.47 °C over a wide temperature range of − 20 to + 120 °C is presented here. The sensitivity of proposed temperature sensor is found to be as high as 0.77 mV/°C. The proposed temperature sensor is realized and tested in Cadence virtuoso mixed signal design atmosphere using 0.18 µm CMOS technology and further investigated with support of tool from Mentor graphics. The engaged area of pad-limited chip is measured to be 0.96 mm².

     

一种AlN基陶瓷微热板NO2气体传感器研究

针对传统硅基微热板半导体气体传感器存在的热稳定性差,工艺复杂等难点,采用良好热导特性的AlN陶瓷为衬底,利用柔性机械剥离工艺和半导体材料In2O3/Nb2O5/Pt厚膜工艺制备了NO2微热板气体传感器.传感器中间加热区周围采用热隔离结构设计,降低了加热区温度分布梯度,提高了温度效率.利用ANSYS有限元工具进行了热结构仿真分析和响应测试分析,验证了热隔离结构设计的合理性.气敏测试分析表明,传感器在不同加热功率条件下,对5×10-6~100×10-6的NO2气体都具有良好的气敏响应特性,经对比分析,在功率150 mW~200 mW时稳定性最佳,且响应速率小于60 s,恢复时间在100 s左右,可实现5×10-6~100×10-6浓度的NO2气体良好检测功能.     

基于喷墨打印的可实现敏感材料原位沉积和高温检测的柔性丙酮气体传感器

通过离子交换技术对衬底表面改性,然后喷墨打印掩膜图形,在聚酰亚胺衬底两面分别制备了银叉指电极和加热电阻.通过调节电阻加热器两端的直流偏压,实现25 ℃~280 ℃的控温加热.集成的加热器具有双重功能:纳米ZnO敏感薄膜原位沉积和高温检测.结果表明,该传感器对丙酮气体的灵敏度随温度单调增加(<150 ℃).此外,加热器促进了ZnO敏感薄膜表面丙酮气体分子的解吸,缩短了传感器响应和恢复时间,并减小了初始电阻的漂移.此外,在丙酮检测中,加热器能有效地减少湿度干扰.     

SOI-CMOS compatible low-power gas sensor using sputtered and drop-coated metal-oxide active layers

In this paper, a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) solid-state gas-sensor with an original design of a polysilicon loop-shaped microheater fabricated on a thin-stacked dielectric membrane is presented. The microheater ensures high thermal uniformity and very low power consumption (25 mW for heating at 400°C). Sensitive films are based on tin and tungsten oxides deposited either by RF sputtering or drop coating methods. The fabricated sensors are tested to a wide variety of contaminant species and promising results are obtained. The use of completely CMOS compatible TMAH-based bulk micro-machining techniques during the fabrication process, allows easy smart gas sensor integration in SOI-CMOS technology. This makes SOI-based gas-sensing devices particularly attractive for use in handheld battery-operated gas monitors.     

微结构气敏传感器的热分析与结构设计

微结构气敏传感器由于其微型化、低功耗、易阵列化、易智能化、易批量生产等独物优点,受到国内外研究者的广泛重视。本文分析膜片型微结构气敏传感器基本单元的热学行为,用有限元方法模拟计算多种不同电极结构的器件功耗及工作区温度分布,提出了进一步降低黛耗改善工作区温度均匀性的途径和方法,并讨论了微结构气敏传感器设计中应着重考虑的问题。     

Rapid heating vibrations of FGM annular sector plates

In this paper, thermally induced vibration of annular sector plate made of functionally graded materials is analyzed. All of the thermomechanical properties of the FGM media are considered to be temperature dependent. Based on the uncoupled linear thermoelasticity theory, the one-dimensional transient Fourier type of heat conduction equation is established. The top and bottom surfaces of the plate are under various types of rapid heating boundary conditions. Due to the temperature dependency of the material properties, heat conduction equation becomes nonlinear. Therefore, a numerical method should be adopted. First, the generalized differential quadrature method (GDQM) is implemented to discretize the heat conduction equation across the plate thickness. Next, the governing system of time-dependent ordinary differential equations is solved using the successive Crank–Nicolson time marching technique. The obtained thermal force and thermal moment resultants at each time step from temperature profile are applied to the equations of motion. The equations of motion, based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), are derived with the aid of the Hamilton principle. Using the GDQM, two-dimensional domain of the sector plate and suitable boundary conditions are divided into a number of nodal points and differential equations are turned into a system of ordinary differential equations. To obtain the unknown displacement vector at any time, a direct integration method based on the Newmark time marching scheme is utilized. Comparison investigations are performed to validate the formulation and solution method of the present research. Various examples are demonstrated to discuss the influences of effective parameters such as power law index in the FGM formulation, thickness of the plate, temperature dependency, sector opening angle, values of the radius, in-plane boundary conditions, and type of rapid heating boundary conditions on thermally induced response of the FGM plate under thermal shock.

     

原子磁传感器原子气室无磁控温技术

针对原子磁传感器碱金属原子气室对无磁加热的需求,解决磁力仪共振谱线信号信噪比低的问题,使用了差分对的布线方法,采用微加工膜工艺,在陶瓷基板上制备了方形纯铜材质的无磁加热线圈.使用COMSOL Multiphysics多物理场仿真软件分析了线圈在2.2mA直流条件下产生的附加稳态磁场分布情况,结合Pro/Engineer软件构建的铜质气室固定支架及其热仿真分析结果,得到了比较理想的加热线圈固定位置.进一步分析确定了20kHz交流加热方案,最终制作完成了具有3W加热功率和0.1℃控温精度的无磁加热器.实验结果表明:该加热器瞬时磁扰动为2.24pT,满足原子气室无磁加热要求.其结果对原子磁传感器气室的设计及工作参数的优化改进具有一定的参考意义.     

Detection of ammonia in the ppt range based on a composite optical waveguide pH sensor

An optical waveguide (OWG) pH sensor with two thin guiding layers (composite OWG) was fabricated, and its application to sensing extremely low concentrations of ammonia was demonstrated. The highly sensitive element based on a titanium dioxide (TiO₂) film was deposited onto the surface of a potassium ion (K⁺) exchanged glass OWG by RF sputtering. The surface of the TiO₂ film was coated with a thin film of a pH indicator dye (bromothymol blue, BTB) by spin coating. With optimum thickness of BTB film at about 46 nm and of TiO₂ films at 18–20 nm, this system proved to be an extremely sensitive ammonia sensor. The experimental results of the optimum conditions on BTB and TiO₂ film thicknesses were close to theoretically calculated values. The sensor easily detected 1 parts per trillion (ppt) ammonia reversibly, and had a short response time. The present sensor is also characterized by low cost, simple structure and facile fabrication.