Gas sensor chip paves the way to autonomous e-nose

Gas sensor chip paves the way to autonomous e-nose

Imec (Leuven, Belgium) and Holst Centre (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) have developed very sensitive integrated sensing elements for gas detection. The devices polymer-coated microbridges in high-density arrays can detect ppm-level concentrations of vapors and it is very suitable for miniaturization of electronic nose devices thanks to low power consumption (

Individually vibrated microbridge resonators can be used for separation of gases.

The new microbridges have individual piezoelectric “shakers” in a high-density array with very high fabrication yield. The novel design uses commercial inkjet printing technology for rapid coating of a range of absorbents on individual microbridges. The suspended structures vibrate individually, and changes in their resonances are monitored as an indication of vapor absorption in their coatings. The gas sensor chip has a high sensitivity due to the very high length-to-thickness ratio of the microbridges and implementing integrated piezoelectric read-out schemes allows ultra-low-power operation. For more information, visit www.imec.be or www.holstcentre.com.

Jim Harrison