Design and Simulation of an Integrated Metal Oxide Based Mlicro N2 Gas Sensor

Ling-Han Li*, Dzung Viet Dao and Susumu Sugiyama

Department of Micro system Technology, Faculty of Science Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1 -1 1- Noj i-Higashi,
Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-8577
*Corresponding Author. Tel 077-561-2775, Email grO20057@se.ritsumei.acjp
electrical field analysis was done. The multi-physic analyses,
Abstract:
including electro-thermo analysis of the micro heater,
In this paper, a novel design of metal-oxide NO2 gas
thermo-structure analysis of the sensor's structure [2],
sensor integrated with micro heaters is presented. This
thermo-fluidic analysis for the heat insulation between the
sensor diaphragm and the substrate, were carried out as well.
gas sensor is ultra small, with the size of 500pmx500pim.
It has low power consumption less than 10 mW and high
The simulation results show that the heat loss can be
sensitivity np to 0.lppm. The strnctnre of gas sensor was
neglected when the gap between substrate and sensing
designed, and computer-aided multi-physic simulations
membrane is larger than 15 Lrm. Furthermore, the heater can
were carried out to analyze and optimize the
provide homogeneous temperature environment above
performance of the gas sensor. Then the sensing circuit is
200N C with the power consumption of around 1OmW. The
designed and simulated. Finally, the fabrication process
time response of the heater is less than 0. 1s and the structure
of the sensor is discussed.
deformation due to thermal stress of the sensor is less than
Key words: NO2 sensor, metal oxide gas sensor, thin
0.02ptm.
Then the sensing circuit is designed. At last, the
filM W03,micro heater, Computer-aided simulation.
fabrication process of the sensor is discussed.
1. INTRODUCTION

Recently, there have been growing concerns about

environment pollution and global warming problem. Thus
demands for fast response high sensitive and reliable
environment monitoring and sensing systems are increasing
in both industry and consumer applications. Figure.1 shows
an example of SNA-MEMS (Smart Nano MEMS) integrate
chip with gas senor accelerator temperature sensor
processing circuits and RF antenna. Among the pollution
gases, NO2 gas is very concerned because it is largely
produced by automobiles. Therefore, in this paper, a novel
design of metal oxide NO gas sensor integrated with micro
heater is presented It is designed to test in situ the presence
of NO2 gas density with consideration of integration into the
SNA-MEMS chip shown in Figure 1. The NO2 gas sensor
utilizes the conductivity change of the ultra-thin film W03
on Pt electrodes to sense NO2 gas A special preparation
method for W03 sensing material is presented. The
sensitivity is enhanced as the result of both ultra-thin film
structure of W03 and comb shape configuration of Pt
electrodes. Pt heater is integrated in the same layer as
electrode to provide an uniform temperature environment.
And cantilever beam connecting sensing area (a diaphragm)
and the outside frame is especially designed to improve the
heat insulation. The gas sensor is ultra small, with the size of
500jtmx500jim. It has low power consumption of about 10
mW and very high sensitivity up to 0. lppm [1].
The structure of gas sensor was designed and simulated to
analyze and optimize the performance of the gas sensor. The

cessor etc

RF antenna

Figure 1 SNA-MEMS micro integrated chip

2. DESIGN OF INTEGRATED NO2 GAS SENSOR

The NO2 gas sensing principle is mainly based on the fact

that conductivity of W03 thin film will be changed with
different NO2 gas concentration at a working temperature
above 2000C. The W03 thin film is specially prepared. The
comb shape sensing electrode is designed to enhance the
sensitivity level. Although it is reported that the smaller the
gap between electrodes is, the higher the sensitivity will be
[1], with the consideration of process limitation, the gap
and width of the Pt electrodes are set as 5ptm as shown in
figure 2 (b).

Pt sensin electrodes

W03 thin fil

Connecti,ng beamr

(a)

Micro heater

(b)

Figure 2 (a) Schematic view of the NO gas sensor (b) Design of the micro
heater (red) and sensing electrodes (green) of the sensor

The micro Pt hearer is integrated in the same layer of the

electrodes to provide working temperature at 2000C.
Schematic view of the gas sensor is shown in figure 2a The
sensor is fabricated by using SOI wafer and the beams
connecting thin sensing diaphragm and the outer frame are
specially designed to improve the heat insulation and
counteract the lateral heat distortion of the sensing
diaphragm. Figure 3 shows the cross section of the sensor
and, as can be seen, the sensing diaphragm consists of 5
layers. The top 5i02 layer is a protect layer of Pt heater
against cross connecting and contamination. The sandwich
structure of the SiO2-Si-SiO2 is for the purpose of
counteracting the vertical deformation of diaphragm,
because thermal grown SiO2 has compressive stress of
300MPa. The overall size of the sensor is 5OOqmx5OOitm.
The required power consumption is about 10 mW and the
sensitivity of NO is theoretically calculated up to 0. lppm.
W1(3

SiO2 0.2 m
Pt0.1S itm

3. THERMAL SIMULATION OF THE HEAT INSULATION

BETWEEN THE SENSING DIAPHRAGM AND SUBSTRATE

There are two problems of the gas sensor need to be

simulated. The first is about the heat insulation of the
sensing diaphragm and the substrate, and the second is about
the performance of the micro heater and thermo-structure
effect.
For the first problem, the thermal fluid analysis was firstly
conducted using the ANSYS multifield TM solver [3]. The
algorithm of the solver is shown in Figure 4. The flagged
surface is set between the solid (sensor) and fluid (air). In
every loop the electric-thermal simulation and fluid
simulation are carried out sequentially and the constraint and
energy is converted through the flagged surface one another.
When the convergence of the loads is satisfied, the loop is
ended and result is presented.

I
Figure 4 Algorithm of the Multifield solver between solid and fluid

A 2-dimensional thermal fluid analysis was firstly carried

out and the result shows that the heat transferring is mainly
occurred in the area between sensing diaphragm and the
substrate, (shown in Figure 5).

SiO2 0.3 ii mn
Si 1.8 p m-

Si(2 0.5 il m
Si 400 it m--

Figure 3 Cross section of the micro gas sensor

Figure 5 2D simulation of thermal fluid effect of sensor and substrate

Therefore, the three dimensions model can be simplified

so that the simulation time and required memory are largely
cut down. We have concentrated the simulation concern only
to the air area between the sensing diaphragm and substrate.
Figure 6 shows the simplified simulation model. The power
consumption of the model was set to be 3 mW.

distribution derived from thermo-electric simulation will

serve as the DOF (degree of freedom) constraint in the
following thermo-structure simulation.
There are basically two methods of coupling distinguished
by the finite element formulation techniques used to develop
the matrix equations, strong (simultaneous, full) coupling
and weak (sequential) coupling. The two types of simulation
mentioned above belong to the weak coupling type [3].
Element type SOLID5 is used in both simulation and
analysis type is set as static. The thermo-electric simulation
loads vector as the transferring constraint. The matrix
equation is:

AN

I.,

_ _,11

... ..-_-_---.

imulation model for ev luating the heat

Fiure 6 3D

nsul at

of diaphragm at 3mW power consumption can be obtained

as shown in figure 7 shows. It can be concluded that with the
gap larger than 155m, the heat loss of the diaphragm is so

small that can be neglected

35

O .

1,.

150

100

50

.1
10

30

20

40

50

Gap(um)
Figure 7 Relationship between
diaphragm

gap

size and temperature

on

the sensing

Furthermore, the heat loss caused by thermal radiation can

be evaluated using the basic black body radiation equation
as follow [7]

dt

{Qnd}

{Qc}

{Qg}

On the other hand, the thermo-structure static analysis

matrix equation is shown as follow:

(3)

![L] [Kt)]{{T}} ={{Q}

0
0

where: [Kt] = [K b] + [Kc] {Q}

{Q1} {I}={=nd}

+([K] [0] AJ{U}l JF}l

200

(2)

([M] [oJ{ }}jj l+([C] [c[O] AJUL{T'}J}

[0] [0]U{T" [0]

21r
250

0]j{T}1 (r[K] [0] F{T}1 {M}L

V
{I} J
W [o] [o]Jl{V}J [o] [KV]J{}J

(KCt]

on

altering the gap between the sensing diaphragm and

substrate the relationship between gap and the teimperature
By

AT4

(1)

Hence the radiation loss at 2000C of the 200ptm2 sensing

diaphragm is less than 5ptW, it is neglected in the following
simulation.
4. MULTI-PHYSIC FIELD SIMULATION OF THE
PERFORMANCE OF THE MICRO HEATER

With
the
simulation
result
the
above,
electro-thermo-structure analysis is carried out to study the
performance of the micro heater. The simulation can be
divided into two sub parts, thermo-electric analysis and
thermo-structural analysis. [8], [9] Direct coupling algorithm
is used in ANSYS to solve the problems and the temperature

where: [Kt] = [Ktb] + [Ktc] {F} = {Fnd} + {Fth} + {F}pr +

{Fac} {Q} = {Qnd} + {Qg} + {QC}
The parameters in equations (2) and (3) are detailed as
below:
{T} thermal potential (temperature) vector
{V} electric potential vector
[Ktb] thermal conductivity matrix of material
[Ktc] thermal conductivity matrix of convection surface
{Qnfd} applied nodal heat flow rate vector
{QC} convection surface vector
{Qg} heat generation rate vector for causes other than Joule
heating
{JQ} heat generation rate vector for Joule heating
{1nd} applied nodal electric current vector
{u} displacement vector
{T} thermal potential (temperature) vector
{FndF} applied nodal force vector
{Fth} thermal strain force vector
{F p} pressure load vector
{F ac} force vector due to acceleration effects

Figure 8 shows the temperature distribution of the sensing

diaphragm provided by the micro heater. With the applied
voltage of 2V, the temperature can reach 21 50C. The
temperature distribution is very homogeneous with the
temperature difference of 0.11 C, which is only 0.046% of

2150C. The time response of the heater, as shown in figure 9,

is

less than 0.

second.
AN

AN

With the consideration of process limitation, the minimum

gas sensor is 5ptm.

pattern size of this NO2

5. SENSITIVITY SIMULATION AND DESIGN OF THE SENSING

CIRCUIT

The sensitivity analysis is to estimate the resistance

change of WO3 thin film based on the experiment data.
4_

(a)
(b)
Figure 8 (a) Temp distribution of the sensing diaphragm. (b) Temp
distribution of a heat line in the sensing dia

-!.

r.a)

1.5

C)

a)

t.,;3

0.05
single

electrode short

0.15

0.1
single

electrode

0.3
long

multiple

electrode

0.35

Time(s)

Figure 12 Simulation results of resistance change with different sensing

electrodes
r igure

11iime responise o01

ite

miciir

nLateL

The structure deformation of the diaphragm is shown in

figure 10. The maximum displacement is less than 0.26ptm
and the Von Mises stress is shown in the figure 11.
Maximum Von Mises stress is 127 kPa.
mAN

Figure 12 shows the simulation result. The red curve

stands for the current change of single pair electrodes while
the yellow curve stands for the comb shape electrodes. It can
be concluded that the change of the sensing current in NO2
gas has been largely improved from 0.0 l2mA to 0.1 2mA at
the same NO2 gas concentration. The estimated resistance of
the WO3 in lppm NO2 concentration is 2 MQ.
The sensing circuit is a typical Wheatstone bridge with the
first class amplifier and AD converter (Figure 13), and the
amplitude and phase response of the first class amplifier is
shown in figure 14.
Rl

R2
U3

F. FIAIIAII..

Figure 10 Thermal distortion of the sensing diaphragm

AN
STEP:1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"

R3

ADC

OPAMP

17: I'6:5l

IM=

ADC

-12428.2

,A

Figure

11

III.91

85.111

....704

NEW EVALUATION

Von Mises stress distribution of the sensing diaphragm

Figure 14 Altitude and phase response of the low pass amplifier

6. FABRICATION PROCESS

The fabrication process of the micro NO2 gas sensor is

depicted in figure 15. SQl wafer with device layer of 2.m is
used as starting material Firstly the SOI wafer is oxidized

on both sides and lift-off process is carried out to form both

the Pt sensing electrodes and the micro Pt heater on the SiO2
surface. Then, the protection layer SiO2 is sputtered and
patterned so that it covers only on the micro heater. After
that the ICP etching is used to form the beam connecting the
diaphragm and the frame. Backside SiO2 surface is then
etched out to open window for backside ICP etching. The
SiO2 BOX layer, acts as the etching stop layer during ICP
etching, is then etched out by vapor HF to release the
sensing diaphragm Next H2 WO4 solution is dropped on
the comb shape electrodes. Then H2W04 solution is dried at
room temperature for one day to create a thin film. Finally,
the H2WO4 film is self-annealed at 4000C for 3 hours to
form W03 thin film.

The structure of gas sensor was designed, and the

computer-aided multi-physic simulations were carried out to
analyze and optimize the performance of the gas sensor.
Then the sensing circuit is designed and, finally, the
fabrication process of the sensor is discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research is supported by Micro/Nano Science
Integrated System Project in the 21st Century COE
Program at Ritsumeikan University. The authors
would like to express their special thanks to Prof.
Tamaki and Dr. Hashishin in Applied Chemistry
Department, Ritsumeikan University for their
generous helps in this research
REFERENCES

[1] Jun Tamaki, "Effect of micro-gap electrode on detection

of dilute N02 using W03 thin film micro sensors", Sensors
and Actuators B 108(2005)202-206
[2] Massood Z. Atashbar, Bradle J.Bazuin, "3D FE
simulation of H2 SAW gas sensor", Sensors and Actuators B
111-112(2005)213-218
[3] Kap-Duk Song,Byug-Su Joo, Nak-Jin Choi, Yun-Su Lee,
Jeung-Soo Huh, Byung-Ki Sohn and Duk-Dong Lee,The
of novel
fabrication
micro hot-wire
sensor,
TransducerO3,2003
[4] Sang-Do HAN Fabrication of micro gas sensors using
nano-sensing materials, and its application to the auto
ventilation system

[5] ANSYS 9.0 tutorial,

[6] Youngcheol Joo, Changkyo Kim, Heat Transfer
Simulation for N02 Micro Gas Sensor Fabricated by MEMS
Technology, The 2004 International Technical Conference
on Circuits Systems, Computers and Communication, 2004

Sputtering SiO2 onto the surface

Etch out BOX SiO2 and drop thin film W03

Figure 15 Fabrication process for the micro N02 gas sensor

7. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a design of novel metal-oxide NO2 gas

sensor integrated with micro heater is presented. The chip
size of the gas sensor is 500ptmx500pim with low power
consumption of about 10 mW. The sensitivity of the gas
sensor is high because of both the thin film structure of W03
and narrow gap comb structure of the sensing electrodes.

[7] Frank Kreith Principles of heat transfer, 1964,

International Textbook Company
[8] Ijaz H. Jafri and et al., "Experimental investigate,
modeling, and simulation for MEMS based gas sensor used
for monitoring process chambers in semiconductor
manufacture", Proc. SPIE Vol. 4407, pp. 35-44
[9] C. Bohm, T. Hauck, E. B. Rudnyi, J. G. Korvink,"
Compact Electro-thermal Models of Semiconductor Devices
with Multiple Heat Sources. The Technical Proceedings of
the EUROSIME2004 May 9-12, 2004, Leuven/Brussels,
Belgium.