Characteristics of suspended planar-type gas sensor based on MEMS process

基于MEMS工艺的悬臂共面式气体传感器性能分析(英文)

In order to simplify the fabrication process,distribute the temperature uniformly and reduce the power consumption of the micro-hotplate（MHP） gas sensor,a planar-type gas sensor based on SnO2 thin film with suspended structure is designed through a MEMS process.Steady-state thermal analysis of the gas sensor and the closed membrane type sensor where the membrane overlaps the Si substrate is carried out with the finite element model,and it is shown that the suspended planar-type gas sensor has a more homogeneous temperature distribution and a lower power consumption.When the maximum temperature on the sensor reaches 383℃,the power consumption is only 7 mW,and the temperature gradient across the thin film is less than 14℃.To overcome the fragility of the suspended beams,a novel fabrication process in which the deposition of the gas sensing film occurs prior to the formation of suspended beams is proposed.The back side of the Si substrate is etched through deep reactive ion etching（DRIE） to avoid chemical pollution of the front side.The fabrication steps in which only four masks are used for the photolithography are described in detail.The Fe doped SnO2 thin film synthesized by sol-gel spin-coating is used as the gas sensing element.The device is tested on hydrogen and exhibits satisfactory sensing performance.The sensitivity increases with the rise of the concentration from 50×10-6 to 2000×10-6,and reaches about 30 at 2000×10-6.

为了简化制作工艺,使温度分布均匀以及降低功耗,设计了一种基于MEMS制造工艺的悬臂共面式SnO2气体传感器.使用有限元法对这种传感器及膜结构堆积于硅基底上的封闭膜式气体传感器进行了稳态热分析,结果表明悬臂共面式传感器拥有更均匀的温度分布和更低的功耗.当最高温度为383℃时功耗仅为7mW,敏感薄膜上的温差低于14℃.为解决悬臂易碎的问题,提出了一种新的制造工艺,该过程在正面刻蚀SiO2层形成悬臂结构前沉积SnO2敏感薄膜,并采用深反应离子刻蚀的方法对硅基底进行体刻以避免湿法刻蚀对传感器表面的化学污染.整个过程总共需要4块掩模板.采用旋涂法溶胶凝胶法将掺有Fe离子的SnO2薄膜沉积于基底上作为敏感元件.该器件对氢气表现出了良好的气敏性能,随着氢气浓度从50×10-6上升到2000×10-6,灵敏度逐渐提高,在2000×10-6时的灵敏度为30.