Functional materials for MEMS based gas sensors
Manjunath R. Venkatesh (TU Delft - Electronic Components, Technology and Materials)
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Abstract
A MEMS gas sensor consists of a transducer, mainly a resistive or capacitive transducer coated with a thin film of specific functional materials. Functional materials can change their electrical, optical, magnetic, or mechanical properties based on the stimuli received. In a chemi-resistive or chemi-capacitive gas sensing system, thin film of functional materials coated on the transducers are a class of materials that can change the resistivity or dielectric properties of the adsorption or chemisorption of volatile organic compounds such as methanol and ethanol. A combination of efficient design of the MEMS transducer, read-out system, and robust sensing material is a key requirement for the development of good and reliable sensors. In this thesis, the study of thin-film dielectric and semiconducting nanoparticles integrated on MEMS transducers for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), namely ethanol and methanol vapors are presented.