Batch-fabricated CO gas sensor in large-area (8-inch) with sub-10 mW power operation

Abstract

Gas sensors that can operate with sub-10 mW power consumption are in great demand in application where mobile devices are used to detect harmful gases in real time. Such low power gas sensors can be realized by employing miniaturized and air-suspended microheater platforms; however, a productive and reliable fabrication method should be developed for their practical use. Here, we present a batch-fabrication method based on a surface micro-machining process to uniformly and reliably produce the sub-10 mW power oerating gas sensors on an 8-inch wafer area. The fabricated gas sensors showed a reproducible and sensitive response to various concentrations of carbon monoxide gas (as low as 1 ppm) with 5.0 mW power operation, which is among the lowest power achieved for semiconducting metal-oxide gas sensors. In addition, the devices showed low sample-to-sample variation and high reliability in a long-term stability test, verifying their potential for practical use in mobile gas sensing applications.