Nano-fin based mercury-sensor for environmental surveillance

This Nano-Fin-Sensor bases on a lithography-independent technology-process, enabling research on Nano-Sensors without cost-intensive technology-equipment. Background for the sensor described within this paper is the high pollution with mercury of the environment and the lack of cheap, easy to use and portable sensors. The lithography-independent process is based on a "deposition and etch-back" technique defining Nano-Fins. Active sensor-material is a gold-layer, deposited on the fin, increasing resistance being exposed to mercury-vapor due to the process of amalgamation. Regeneration is done by heating-up the gold-layer using the poly-silicon fin as resistance-heating-device driving out the adsorbed mercury. To increase the measurement-accuracy, the sensor is made up of four Nano-Fin-Sensors, connected as Wheatstone-bridge. Two sensors have to be passivated by a mercury diffusion barrier, here a silicon-nitride-layer.