Design and Fabrication of MOS Type Gas Sensor with Vertically Integrated Heater Using CMOS-MEMS Technology

This study implements the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) type gas sensor using the TSMC 0.35 μm 2P4M process. The gas concentration is detected based on the resistance change measured by the proposed sensor. This design has three merits: (1) low-cost post-CMOS process using metal/oxide wet etching, (2) composite sensing material based on ZnO-SnO2 coating on the CMOS-MEMS structure, (3) vertical integration of heater and ZnO-SnO2 gas-sensing films using CMOS-MEMS and drop casting technologies. Proposed design significantly increase the sensitivity at the high operating temperature. In summary, the sensitivity of presented sensor increased from 0.04%/% (O2/N2) at near room operating temperature to 0.2%/%(O2/N2) at near 140 °C for the range of 5–50% oxygen concentration