Fabrication and Characteristics of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System-Based Gas Flow Sensor

Abstract

This paper proposes a highly-sensitive gas flow sensor with a simple structure. The sensor is composed of a micro-heater for heating the gas medium and a pair of temperature sensors for detecting temperature differences due to gas flow in a sealed chamber on one axis. Operation of the gas flow sensor depends on the transfer of heat through the air medium. The proposed gas flow sensor has the capability to measure gas flow rates <5 <TEX>$cm^3$</TEX>/min with a resolution of approximately 0.01 <TEX>$cm^3$</TEX>/min. Furthermore, this paper reports some additional experiment results, including the sensitivity of the proposed gas flow sensor as a function of operating current and the flow of different types of gas(oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen). The fabrication process of the proposed sensor is very simple, making it a good candidate for mass production.