Sensitive and Low-Power Metal Oxide Gas Sensors with a Low-Cost Microelectromechanical Heater

Abstract

In this study, a simple and cost-effective metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensor, which can be fabricated utilizing only two photolithography steps, was designed and developed through the planar microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technique. Ball-milled porous tin dioxide nanoparticle clusters were precisely drop-coated onto the integrated microheater region and subsequently characterized using a helium ion microscope (HIM). The spatial suspension of the silicon nitride platform over the silicon substrate provides superior thermal isolation and thus dramatically reduces the power consumption of the microheater. The well-designed microheater exhibits excellent thermal uniformity, which was verified both computationally and experimentally. The as-fabricated sensors were tested for ethanol gas sensing at various operating temperatures with different concentrations. At the optimal work temperature of ∼400 °C, our gas sensors demonstrated a respectable sensitivity to 1 ppm ethanol, which is the lower detection limit to most commercial products. Moreover, stable performance over repetitive testing was observed. The innovative sensor developed here is a promising candidate for portable gas sensing devices and various other commercial applications.