Thermo-mechanical structures for the optimisation of silicon micromachined gas sensors

Abstract

Thermal and mechanical characterisation has been carried out on simple test structures that allow the optimisation of the size, power consumption and mechanical robustness of thermally isolated membranes for semiconductor gas sensors fabricated on silicon micromachined substrates. Breakdown pressure, working temperature and heat distribution are the parameters that have been considered of interest for the development of the sensor structures.