A Novel MEMS Microheater Based Alcohol Gas Sensor using Nanoparticles

This work reports the simulation of nanoparticle coated MEMS based Alcohol Gas Sensor analysis with various parameters like power consumption, temperature uniformity, resistance change, sensitivity and selectivity. It is achieved by measuring the change in resistance when gas is exposed over the sensing layer. This instantaneous response in detection of gases helps in various application such as breath analyzer in vehicles, breath analyzer, food quality control etc. The gas sensor employs a mesh type poly silicon micro-hotplate structure. The sensor holds a very thin conducting film made of titanium which detects the presence of ethyl alcohol vapors on it. The temperature generated by the hot-plate influences various factors such as the conductance of the film and the quantity of a particular gas adsorbed on it. When sensor film is bring to the right boiling point temperature it evaporates residual vapor particles. For effective sensing of alcohol gas, we optimize the supply voltage (around 3 Volts) and the uniform temperature profile of the micro heater was analyzed (619.29 K) along with sensitivity and selectivity. For the gas sensing analysis, we have compared the sensitivity of thin film coating of ZnO, TiO2, and SnO. The design was simulated by means of joules heating, thermal expansion and Electric current FEM simulation.