Abstract
The study investigates the fabrication and characterization of an ethanol microsensor equipped with a heater. The ethanol sensor is manufactured using the commercial 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. The sensor consists of a sensitive film, a heater and interdigitated electrodes. The sensitive film is zinc oxide prepared by the sol-gel method, and it is coated on the interdigitated electrodes. The heater is located under the interdigitated electrodes, and it is used to supply a working temperature to the sensitive film. The sensor needs a post-processing step to remove the sacrificial oxide layer, and to coat zinc oxide on the interdigitated electrodes. When the sensitive film senses ethanol gas, the resistance of the sensor generates a change. An inverting amplifier circuit is utilized to convert the resistance variation of the sensor into the output voltage. Experiments show that the sensitivity of the ethanol sensor is 0.35 mV/ppm.
Highlights
Ethanol sensors are important devices for application in industrial and environmental monitoring.Humans may inhale high concentrations of ethanol vapor that can cause headaches, balance disorders, nausea, dizziness and confusion [1]
The sensitive film of the ethanol sensor was zinc oxide prepared by sol-gel method [19]
The power supply provided a power to the heater, and the infrared thermometer detected the temperature of the heater
Summary
Ethanol sensors are important devices for application in industrial and environmental monitoring. Peng, et al [3] employed micromachining technology to make a nitrogen oxide microsensor, whose sensitive material was porous silicon nanowires prepared by the metal-assisted chemical etching method. The gas microsensor had an ability to sense nitrogen oxide at room temperature. Kumar [4] reported room temperature gas microsensors based on silicon nanowires manufactured by micromachining technology. Dong et al [5] proposed a gas microsensor with a micro heater fabricated using micromachining technology. Liu et al [7] developed a micro catalytic combustible hydrogen gas sensor using MEMS technology, and the sensitive material of the sensor was tin dioxide. Pandya et al [9] employed MEMS technology to make an ethanol sensor, and a nickel micro heater was integrated with the sensor. The post-process contains to remove the sacrificial oxide layer and coat the zinc oxide film
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