Additive technologies for ceramic MEMS sensors

摘要

The application of MEMS technology for the fabrication of MOX sensors with low power consumption becomes now a very important trend in gas sensor design. However, traditional silicon technology has some evident disadvantages, when applied in high-temperature devices produced in limited batch. We present our attempt to combine the advantages of ceramic MEMS technology (high working (600°C) and technological treatment (1000°C) temperature, chemical stability at high temperature) with the advantages of additive technologies for the fabrication of functional elements of gas sensor (heaters, sensing, and catalytic layers). We developed conductive silver, gold and platinum nanoparticle (10-30 nm) inks usable in ink and aerosol jet printers and demonstrated the possibility to fabricate narrow conductive lines of microheaters and electrodes of sensor (line width ～ 35 μm). The combination of jet printing onto thin ceramic substrate with laser cutting enables the fabrication of advanced cantilever type sensors operating in pulsing heating mode.