Development of hot surface polysilicon-based chemical sensor and actuator with integrated catalytic micropatterns for gas sensing applications

Over the last twenty years, we have followed a rapid expansion in the development of chemical sensors and microreactors for detection and analysis of volatile organic compounds. However, for many of the developed gas sensors poor sensitivity and selectivity, and high-power consumption remain among one of the main drawbacks. One promising approach to increase selectivity at lower power consumption is calorimetric sensing, performed in a pulsed regime and using specific catalytic materials. In this work, we study kinetics of various catalytic oxidation reactions using micromachined hot surface polysilicon-based sensor containing sensitive and selective catalysts. The sensor acts as both thermal actuator of chemical and biochemical reactions on hot-surfaces and detector of heats (enthalpies) associated with these reactions. Using novel deposition techniques we integrated selective catalysts in an array of hot plates such that they can be thermally actuated and sensed individually. This allows selective detection and analysis of dangerous gas compounds in a mixture, specifically hydrocarbons at concentrations down to low ppm level. In this contribution we compare various techniques for the local immobilization of catalytic material on hot spots of the sensor in terms of process compatibility, mechanical stress, stability and cost.