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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Aerosol-assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of Metal Oxide Structures: Zinc Oxide Rods
Published on: September 14, 2017
Improved Sensing Capability of Integrated Semiconducting Metal Oxide Gas Sensor Devices
Ayoub Lahlalia1, Olivier Le Neel2, Ravi Shankar3
1Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria. lahlalia@iue.tuwien.ac.at.
Abstract:
Semiconducting metal oxide (SMO) gas sensors were designed, fabricated, and characterized in terms of their sensing capability and the thermo-mechanical behavior of the micro-hotplate. The sensors demonstrate high sensitivity at low concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at a low power consumption of 10.5 mW. In addition, the sensors realize fast response and recovery times of 20 s and 2.3 min, respectively. To further improve the baseline stability and sensing response characteristics at low power consumption, a novel sensor is conceived of and proposed. Tantalum aluminum (TaAl) is used as a microheater, whereas Pt-doped SnO₂ is used as a thin film sensing layer. Both layers were deposited on top of a porous silicon nitride membrane. In this paper, two designs are characterized by simulations and experimental measurements, and the results are comparatively reported. Simultaneously, the impact of a heat pulsing mode and rubber smartphone cases on the sensing performance of the gas sensor are highlighted.
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