Proceedings of ISSS 2005

International Conference on Smart Materials Structures and Systems

July 28-30, 2005, Bangalore, India

ISSS-2005/PS-04

Design of the optimum microheater for smart MEMS gas

sensor

Partha Bhattacharyya, Shreyash Sen ,Avhishek Chatterjee and Hiranmay Saha

IC Design and Fabrication center , Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunication Engg.

Jadavpur University, Kolkata- 700032, India
Phone: (033)24146217
Fax : (033)24146217
Email: juicc@vsnl.com

ABSTRACT

Conventional Metal Oxide gas sensors commonly used for sensing inflammable hydrocarbon gases and
other toxic gases. However, they suffer from the two limitations, viz. (a) their relatively high operating
temperature (≥300° c) and (b) large power dissipation (≥1 Watt). Micromachined silicon based metal
oxide gas sensors are being developed to overcome these limitations.The main part of power
consumption in a micro-machined gas sensor consists of various thermal losses like conduction through
bulk silicon substrate, convection in air from all exposed surfaces and radiation. The thermal
characteristics of micro-machined metal oxide based gas sensors have to be optimized with respect to
low power consumption, well controlled temperature distribution over the sensing layer and fast
transient response. However microheater for the MEMS metal oxide gas sensors have not yet been
optimized. In this paper we have developed a methodology (software) for designing and optimizing
microheater for MEMS based gas sensor. Using this software we can estimate power requirement for
achieving a particular temperature as well as the temperature distribution over the active layer.

Keywords: MEMS metal oxide gas sensor, microheater, thermal analysis, power optimization

1.INTRODUCTION

Semiconducting Metal oxides like SnO2, ZnO, TiO2 have long been used for detecting poisonous (CO) and
inflammable gases(CH4) by their change in conductivity. For sensing gases the temperature of the sensing
layer should be raised to a particular value (typically from 300-450 °c) thereby requiring a large amount of
power. [1-3]. Before the evolution of micro electromechanical structure or MEMS the gas sensors(mainly
ceramic based) has very high power consumption(of the order of 500mW -2W) [3]due to their excessive
thermal mass. Moreover response time was also very high. Microheater for them have been designed and
optimized. But with MEMS and proper thermal isolation between sensor element and substrate, this power
consumption has been scaled down to about only 30-150 mW [4-6]. An embedded heater is incorporated
to maintain a particular temperature (at a particular temperature the sensitivity of the metal oxide is
maximum) over the sensing metal oxide layer, which eventually leads to high power consumption. For
determining the thermal characteristics, there are softwares like ANSYS, Coventorware that employ
finite element method (FEM). But these softwares are very costly and hence are not in the reach of all.
In this paper a new method is devised for analyzing the power consumption and thermal characteristics.
In this paper we developed the theory of heat transfer with the basis of basic thermodynamic equations.
The results of some sample run of programs build based on the theory discussed to show its validity and has been
justified with those obtained using coventorware. Using this easy and cheap methodology anyone can optimize
power consumption with respect to a particular sensing temperature (to reach a particular temperature how much
power is required).

2. STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTION

Fig 2.1: Side view of the MEMS metal oxide gas sensor

The SiO2 layer is a square with dimension 1cm x 1cm on the top surface and the layer is 1.5-2 micron thick.
In the middle of this SiO2 layer a metal oxide (SnO2/ZnO) layer is deposited for sensing. This is also a
square with dimensions 5mm x 5mm and thickness 200 nm. The heater is embedded beneath the SnO2 layer
in the SiO2 layer 0.1 micron down from the top surface of SiO2. The heater keeps the active layer at a
temperature of 350ºc (typically) for maximum sensitivity to reducing gases. The bulk Si is 350 µm thick.
The Si is etched in the middle section with KOH solution so that the membrane (Si) thickness is 50µm .The
etched portion covers the portion of the SiO2 layer above which the SnO2/ZnO layer is placed. All the
dimensions given here specifies a particular MEMS sensor, these may be varied within certain limits.

Fig 2.2: Top view of the sensor (SnO2 /ZnO and SiO2 layer)

3. THERMAL ANALYSIS

In this section we devise a simple and basic theory for calculation of total heat loss.

3.1 Heat source approximation

In top view the heater area (embedded in the SiO2 layer) looks like a square. For simplicity of calculation
we approximate the square by a circle whose radius is taken such that the error in approximation becomes
minimum. This helps us to approximate the heat source as a cylinder whose radius is calculated as follows
and height is the thickness of the SiO2 layer.
To find out the right r0 we take r0= a × τ
Where a is the side of the square and τ is the factor to be found.
 Fig 3.1.1: Heat source area approximated as a circle

To minimize the error in approximation we have to minimize the areas where the square and the circle do
not overlap. For this it can be readily seen that we need to minimize the area ABD + area BCE = area e (for
error).
We can write; Area e = πr2/8 – a2/8 + 2* area ABD
Which could be written in terms of a and τ as
Area e = a2/8 [1- πτ2 -2√(4τ2 – 1) + 8 τ2 tan-1 (√(4τ2 – 1))]
Putting de/dτ = 0 we get
τ = 0.5412
So r0 becomes r0 = τ × a = 0.5412 × a
The temperature of the lateral wall of the cylinder is taken as the heater temperature and this approximation
is valid as the temperature gradient along the thickness of the SiO2 layer is very low (it is also proved later
by calculation in sec 3. 3 .4).
Hence the cylindrical heat source looks like

Fig: 3.1.2: Cylindrical heat source

3.2 Pathways of heat transfer

As shown in the figure 3.2.1 there are 3 components of the heat loss Qa, Qb, Qc. So total heat loss Q=Qa
+Qb+Qc. Heat loss from the surface is due to radiation, conduction through air and convection. The last two losses
are considered as a whole and we call them loss through air .
Qa: heat loss from the top surface of the SnO2 layer by radiation and through air.
Qb: heat loss from the etched surface of the Si bulk by radiation and through air.
Qc: heat coming out from the lateral surface of the cylindrical source.
Qc’: heat loss from the top surface of the SiO2 layer
Qc’’: heat loss from the bottommost surface of the Si layer.
 Qc=Qc′+Qc′′
Fig 3.2.1: Pathways of heat flow

So the total heat coming out from the lateral surface of the cylindrical source is bypassed as Qc’ and Qc’’ and
hence no heat goes out through the farthest vertical surfaces of the SiO2 layer where the temperature dies down
to ambient temperature (T0).Electric current chooses its path such that (Vsource –Vsink)*I is minimum.
Drawing the analogy for heat conduction, heat should flow in such a way so that (Tsource-Tsink)* (dQ/dt)
is minimum. Now as Th-T*>>Th-T1, (as shown later in sec 3. 3. 4) heat will avoid the bypass path
(marked by cross in Fig 3.2.1) and heat bypassing is negligible compared to Qb.

3. 3: Heat loss calculations

In this section Qa, Qb, Qc are separately calculated.

3. 3. 1: Calculation for Qa

Qa is the heat loss from the upper surface (ie. SnO2 surface). It includes heat loss by radiation and through
air. If Th is the temperature of the heater and To is the ambient temperature then considering the SnO2
surface temperature =Th (as the thickness of the SiO2 layer over the heater is very small (0.1 micron) and
SnO2 is conductive and also very thin) we can write
Qa=Qradiation + Qair
= Ahε SnO 2σ (Th4 − T04 ) + 4π kairro (Th − T0 ) ------(1)

Here Ah =area of the heater surface, ε = emissivity constant, σ =Stephan’s constant, kair = thermal
conductivity of air.

3. 3. 2: Calculation for Qb

As in the case of upper surface heat is also lost from the lower surface (i.e. The etched surface). The temp.
of the lower surface be T1 , then Qb has two parts:
Qb= Qradiation + Qair = Aεσ (T1 4 − T04 ) + 4π kairro (T1 − T0 ) ----(2)
Where A= area of the lower surface.
Again this Qb is supplied by conduction .So we can write
Qb= A (Th-T1)/ (h/Ksi +h’/KSiO2) ----(3)
Where h’ is the distance between the heater and the Si layer along the SiO2 layer.

3. 3. 3: Calculation for Qc

Heat loss as Qc requires more attention than Qa or Qb. Here heat is flowing horizontally outwards from the
cylindrical heat source. Now M and N edges are far away compared to P, Q, R, and S edges. Due to
relatively high thermal resistance in reaching M or N we approximate that at M and N edges temperature is
ambient temperature. Now as the source is cylindrical heat flows in cylindrical isothermal surfaces. Hence
we can analyze the heat flow considering some concentric cylinders.Here the heat from the heater goes
radially outwards through the concentric cylinders. Let T and T+∆T be the temperatures of the isothermal
surfaces (A & B) at a distances x and x+∆x from the center respectively. Some part of the heat going into
surface A is dissipated from the piece and some lesser amount of heat comes out at surface B. this
dissipated heat has two parts,
1) One part goes upwards and is lost by radiation and through air.( Qr1 , Qair1 ).
2) Another part goes to the lower part of the Si structure through conduction (Qcd) and then is lost by
radiation and through air. ( Qr 2 , Qair 2 ).
During conduction the amount of heat which is dissipated per unit volume at a point where the temperature
2
is T is given as K d T . So in our case heat dissipated in the region between surfaces= Heat loss from
dx 2
upper and lower surfaces.( as shown in Figure 3.3.1)
Or, KA (d2T/dx2) *∆x =Qr1+Qair1+Qr2+Qair2 ---(4 )
Where the temperature of the lower surface is T*
So equation (4) can be written as
2 4A
kSiO2 A d 2T hSiO = Aε Siσ (T 4 − T04 ) + r (T − T0 )kair +
dx 2 f

4A
Aε SiO2 σ (T ∗ − T04 ) + r (T ∗ −T0 )kair
4
f

Where A= 2π x∆x .

Figure 3.3.1:Heat loss components

.Or,
2T 4 4
= ε Siσ (T 4 − T04 ) + r (T − T0 )kair + ε SiO2 σ (T ∗ − T04 ) + r (T ∗ −T0 )kair ----(5)
4
K1 d
dx 2 f f

Where K1 = kSiO × hSiO

2 2
Assuming T-T*= (T-To)/10
Where T* = Temp. at the bottom surface and To = ambient temp. =300k
Solving we get T*=0.9T+30
Expanding both sides as 4th power of T, we get
T*4=810000+97200T+4374T2+87.48 T3+0.6561T4
With the help of this from equation 5 we have to find
dT
and then we have ,Qc= Ksio2 hsio2[dT/dx] ro * 2. π ro -----(6)
dx r0
With the typical dimensions specified in section 2.
−6 -6
hSiO2= 1.5 ×10 m, h’=1.4*10 m ( height of the SiO2 layer under heater),
-6
hsi=50 *10 (height of the Si layer under heater)
A= 25*10- 6 m2, Ksio2 = 1.4 W m-1K-1, Ksi = 150 W m-1K-1, kair = 0.044 W m-1 k-1,
ε SnO 2 =0.65, ε S i =0.2, ε S iO 2 =0.7
We calculate all the loss components for heater temperature Th= 350 0 C =623 K
Qa= Ah ε SnO 2 σ (Th4-To4) + 4π r0 kair (Th-To) as per ---(1)
=25*10^ -6*0.65*5.7*10^ -8*[6234-3004] +4 π *0.5412*5*10^-3 [623-300]
=0.615 W
Qb=A ε S i σ (T14-To4) + 4π r0 kair (T1-To) as per ---(2)
Now for this we have to calculate T1.
T1 can be calculated by equating equation 2 and 3, i.e.
A ε S i σ (T14-To4) + 4π r0 kair (T1-To) = A (Th-T1)/ (hsi/Ksi +h’/KSiO2)
25*10 -6*5.7*10^-8*0.2*(T14-3004) +59.84(T1-300)
= 25*10 -6(623-T1)/ (50*10^-6/150 + 1.4*10-6/1.4)
Solving this equation we get T1=622.972
Now solving the same equation for different Th we get

Th 623 400 800 1200

T1 622.972 399.992 799.954 1199.9

Table 3. 3. 4. 1 : T1 for different Th

So we can confer that for all practical values of Th we can assumeT1=Th. (this is the reference talked about
previously).So ,
Qb= A ε S i σ (Th4-To4) + 4π r0 kair (Th-To) as per ---(1)
=25*10^ -6*0.2*5.7*10^ -8*[6234-3004] +4 π *0.5412*5*10^-3 [623-300]
=0.5239 W

Qc= Ksio2 hsio2 [dT/dx] ro * 2. π ro as per ----(6)

For this we have to calculate [dT/dx] ro
After putting the values into the equation—(5)
Or, (2.1*10-6)(d2T/dx2) = 3.75*10-8 T4+3.49* 10 -6*T3 +1.74*10-4 T2 + 61.79T -18952.142
(d T/dx ) = 0.0178 T4 + 1.662*T3+92.857 T2 + 29.42*10 6 T -9.02*109
2 2

Now we have eqn. in the form

d2T/dx2 =f (T)
or, 2 (dT/dx )( d2T/dx2)=2 f(T) (dT/dx )
or,d[(dT/dx )2]/dx=2 f(T) (dT/dx )
or, d[(dT/dx )2]=2f(T) . dT

∫ d[(dT/dx )2]= ∫ 2f(T) . dT

2
[( dT / dx ) ro ] 623

∫ ∫ f (T )dT
2
0.5 d [(dT / dx) ] =
0 300
Where f(T)= 0.0178 T4 + 1.662*T3 +
92.857 T2 + 29.42*10 6 T -9.02*109

[dT/dx]r0 = -1.93 X10 6 Kelvin/m(-ve sign comes as T decreases with increasing x, we would only take the
magnitude).Putting this value in equation 7 we get
Qc=0.0689 W
So the total heat power consumed is Q=(0.615+0.5239+0.0689)=1.2078 W

4. RESULTS

A matlab program has been developed on the basis of above-mentioned theory, which calculates the total
heat loss (in Watt), which comprises of three components as discussed above, for a specified temperature
and also for different temperatures.
The plot of total power and individual power consumption components vs. heater temperature curve is shown in
the fig below.

Fig 4.1: Heat loss (different components and total power) vs. temperature of heater

The sensitivity varies with temperature as shown below (for buried Pt [5] )

Fig: 4.2: Sensor sensitivity vs. heater temperature

Comparing the power consumption and the sensor response (sensitivity) it can be concluded
which is the optimum temperature for the operation of the sensor and the power consumed at
that particular temperature.
 Fig 4.3: Heat (temp.) distribution along the tin oxide layer (top view) from our calculation (left) and
verification from Coventorware (right)

5. CONCLUSION

The method of heat analysis employed in this paper is simple enough and matlab programs on the basis of
this theory have been written which calculate the heat loss (i.e. power consumption) at different
temperatures. We have also found the function for dT/dx from which T vs. x curve has been plotted (as
shown in Fig 4.3 where x is the running horizontal distance from the center of the sensing layer. The
equation for this plot is
dT/dx=(2*(1.3692*10^12+0.0178*x^5/5+1.662*x^4/4+92.857*x^3/3+29.42*10^6*x^2/2-
9.02*10^9*x))^.5;
And the plot matches the plot of the same in Coventorware. Plot of heat loss vs. temperature for different
dimensions of sensing layer (from table 4.2) is also possible as shown in example [1, 2, 3, 4]. ANSYS or
Coventorware gives the all the thermal characteristics but these softwares are not available to all due to
their excessive cost and moreover they are not user friendly. Apart from that these softwares offers no
insight to the nature of heat flow within and from the structure. The methods employed in the paper offers
insight as well as gives almost correct results with much less calculation hazards. The program build on this
theory gives results readily as shown in the results section. The MEMS structure has been discussed and
then the theory has been derived, based on which program has also been made and results obtained from
those have also been included in this paper.

References

1. Isolde Simon, Nicole Barsan, Michael Bauer, U. Weimer, “Micromachined metal oxide sensors:
opportunities to improve sensor performance”, Sensors and Actuators, B73, ELSEVIER, 9-12
2. P.Hille, H.Strack,”A heated membrane for a capacitive gas sensor”, Sensors and Actuators,A32 (1992)
321-325
3. U.Grigull, H.Sandner, Warmeleitung, Springer, Berlin, 1979
4. S. Astie, A. Gue, E. Schield, L. Lescouzeres. A. Cassagnes. “Optimization of an integrated SnO2 gas
sensor using FEM simulator,” Sens. Actuators, A69 (1998) 205-211
5.G.G.MandayoE. Castano, “Carbon monoxide detector fabricated on the basis of a Tin oxide novel doping
method”, IEEE Sensors Journal Vol 2 No 4 Aug 2002, 326.
6. G. Sberveglieri, W. Hellmich, G. Muller, Silicon hotplates for metal oxide gas sensor elements,
Microsyst. Technol. 3 (1997) 183-190.