Integrated thermopile vacuum gauge with an XeF₂ dry-etching process

Abstract

In this article, an integrated thermopile vacuum gauge with an XeF 2 dry-etching process is presented. The integrated thermopile vacuum gauge consists of an N-polysilicon heater and 38 N-polysilicon/Al thermocouples. By using XeF 2 front-side isotropic post-etching technique, the integrated vacuum gauge structure was released, and a small size of the integrated thermopile vacuum gauge structure about 0.4 3 1.5 mm 2 has been achieved. Compared with applying a constant voltage to the integrated thermopile vacuum gauge, applying a constant power to the gauge is more sensitive. The experimental results show that the dynamic pressure range of the integrated thermopile vacuum sensor is 10 22-10 5 Pa.

A Highly Accurate Method for Measuring Response Time of MEMS Thermopiles

“…MEMS thermopiles can convert infrared radiation into electrical signals and have been widely used in non—contact thermometers [ 1 , 2 ], uncooled infrared cameras [ 3 , 4 ], gas flow sensors [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], heat flow sensors [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], nondispersive infrared sensors [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], and vacuum gauges [ 16 , 17 ], etc. The performance of thermopiles can be evaluated by various parameters, including responsivity, detectivity, response time, etc.…”