Gas chamber and thermal isolation structure simulation for an integrated NDIR gas sensor

Abstract

The application of non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensors, which is one of the best gas sensing technology in many aspects, has been hampered by its large volume. A device structure integrated with Si gas chamber was proposed and simulated to realize an ultra-small NDIR gas sensor in this paper. 19.75 mm light transport length with 29% efficiency is achieved in a 10 × 10 × 1 mm3 Si gas chamber according to TracePro simulation. Furthermore, thermal isolation structures on silicon interposer have also been simulated and optimized to increase signal to noise ratio of the gas sensor. Finally, a 10 × 10 × 2 mm3 NDIR sensor show high SNR value (162.5) has been designed, which show promising application in mobile phones, internet of things technology, and house air pollution monitoring.