Abstract

The talk will review the state-of-the-art technologies in gas sensors with emphasis on CMOS compatible gas-sensors. The design and experimental results of a new generation of environmental gas and odour sensors based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology will be presented. Compared to current commercial solid-state gas sensors, these new sensors offer ultra low power consumption (below 50 mW), a superior sensitivity to gases, full CMOS compatibility and low cost; achieved through smart CMOS integration of the sensing device, transducer and drive circuitry. Unlike existing commercial gas-sensors that employ platinum resistive heaters, these new smart sensors have micro heaters embedded into a membrane made of fully compatible CMOS layers.