Silicon MEMS Thermocatalytic Gas Sensor in Miniature Surface Mounted Device Form

A reduced size thermocatalytic gas sensor was developed for the detection of methane over 20% explosive concentration. The chip is formed from two membranes with a 150 µm diameter heated area in their centers and covered highly dispersed nano-sized catalyst inert reference, respectively. power dissipation well below 70 mW at 530 °C maximum operation temperature. mounted novel surface metal-ceramic package form-factor SOT-89. sensitivity device 10 mV/v%, whereas response recovery times without additional carbon filter are <500 ms <2 s, tests have shown reliability new design concerning hotplate stability massive encapsulation, but high degradation rate coupled its modest chemical limits use only pulsed mode operation. optimized reduces average consumption 2 mW.