Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Photoacoustic (PA) Detector of Terahertz (THz) Radiation for Chemical Sensing.

摘要

In this research effort, a Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever pressure sensor was designed, modeled, and fabricated to investigate the photoacoustic (PA) response of gases to terahertz (THz) radiation under low vacuum conditions. Previous efforts in this project were improved upon, to include lowering resting out-of-plane curvature to improve sensitivity of devices. Dimensional analysis is taken into consideration and altered dimensions also serve to boost sensitivity while improving fragility of devices. All devices were fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and tested in a custom designed THz vacuum chamber. Fabricated devices have a minimum normalized noise equivalent absorption (NNEA) coefficient of 4.28x10(- 10), an improvement of 69% on prior 10micro devices.