Thick porous silicon layers as sacrificial material for low-power gas sensors

Olaf Bartels; Alexandra Splinter; Uwe Storm; Josef Binder

doi:10.1117/12.364482

1 October 1999 Thick porous silicon layers as sacrificial material for low-power gas sensors

Olaf Bartels, Alexandra Splinter, Uwe Storm, Josef Binder

Proceedings Volume 3892, Device and Process Technologies for MEMS and Microelectronics; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.364482
Event: Asia Pacific Symposium on Microelectronics and MEMS, 1999, Gold Coast, Australia

Abstract

A current problem resistive gas sensor have to deal with is their power consumption. Resistive gas sensors naturally require an operating temperature of several hundred degrees centigrade. Especially for mobile applications a novel sensor generation is needed whose power consumption is less than 100mW. This paper describes the processing of an advanced gas sensor substrate on a membrane structure which fulfills these requirements. The function of the membrane is to carry sensor structures and to reduce heat dissipation. In contrast to conventionally used backside chemical wet etching a thick structured porous silicon layer as a sacrificial layer at the frontside of the chip is used. To reduce the surface topography porous silicon is processed with the help of implanted masks.Following the processing of this layer gas sensor structures are realized on top of the porous silicon. In a final chemical dry etch step the membrane is structured and simultaneously the porous silicon is uncovered from the front and can be removed afterwards. The result is a free-standing thermally decoupled gas sensor membrane with a power consumption less than 50mW.

Citation Download Citation

Olaf Bartels, Alexandra Splinter, Uwe Storm, and Josef Binder "Thick porous silicon layers as sacrificial material for low-power gas sensors", Proc. SPIE 3892, Device and Process Technologies for MEMS and Microelectronics, (1 October 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.364482

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