Fabric transducers sensors

A shadow-mask technique has been applied for the local metal deposition to exclude metal residues on other designs processed on the same wafer (Fig. 4.2b). Such metal residues may be caused by imperfections in the patterned resist due to topographical features on the processed CMOS wafers or dust particles. The metal film is only deposited in those areas on the wafer, where it is needed for electrode coverage on the microhotplates. This also renders the lift-off process easier since no closed metal film is formed on the wafer, so that the acetone has a large surface to attack the photoresist. Another advantage of the local metal lift-off process is its full compatibility with the fabrication sequence of chemical sensors based on other transducer principles [20]. 

The thermal resistance of the circular hotplate was measured to be 5.8 °C/mW for the coated and uncoated transducer. An increased thermal resistance is desirable for sensor arrays with one approach being the reduction of the heated membrane area. At the moment the smallest possible diameter of drop-deposited tin-oxide is 100 pm. A microhotplate with a heated area of 100 pm in diameter was fabricated and featured an increased thermal resistance of approximately 10 °C/mW. 

U. Milnch, D. Jaeggi, N. Schneeberger, A. Schaufelbuhl, O. Paid, H. Baltes, and J. Jasper. Industrial fabrication technology for CMOS infrared sensor arrays , Dig. Tech. Papers Transducers 97, Vol. 1, Chicago, IL, USA, (1997), 205-208. 

Solid-state ion sensors with conducting polymers as ion-to-electron transducers (and sensing membranes) offer some advantages over conventional liquid-contact ISEs. Solid-state ISEs without internal filling solution are more durable, require less maintenance, are easier to miniaturize, and allow great flexibility in electrode design and fabrication. 

The thin layer technology is also used in the fabrication of chemical sensors. Clechet58 defines a chemical sensor as a physical device, called a transducer which delivers an electric signal, which is controlled by its sensitized part, called the detector. This detector must be selective i.e. must be prepared, or functionalized in order to respond only to the substance or group of substances to be detected. Since sensor technology goes beyond the scope of this work, we will limit ourselves here to this definition. 

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