A facile, standardized fabrication approach and scalable architecture for a micro gas chromatography system with integrated pump

Abstract

This paper reports a micro gas chromatography (μGC) system that includes a microfabricated Knudsen pump, preconcentrator, separation column, and discharge-based detector. All four components are co-designed and co-fabricated on the same glass wafer by a 3-mask lithographic process, and fit within a footprint of 1.8 × 1.8 mm2. Each component is tested individually: the motionless Knudsen pump provides 0.4 sccm air flow rate with 1 W input power; the preconcentrator demonstrates a fully desorbed heptane peak at 170°C; the column and the detector demonstrate successful separation and detection of three alkane species. A stackable architecture is proposed as the system integration scheme and a future goal of this effort.