I-Corps: A Technology for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS)-Integrated Vapor Sensors

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be the development and commercialization of a new highly sensitive technology for vapor sensing. This technology offers several advantages, including low power draw and high sensitivity, which allows for its integration in a range of persistent, wireless, portable, and autonomous monitoring applications. These vapor sensors are anticipated to have application to a wide range of fields including agriculture, threat detection, health, indoor air quality, analysis of pollutants, and industrial chemical safety. The developed technology is further expected to impact a range of fields leading to significant improvements in the quality of agricultural products, public health and safety, the efficiency of indoor climate control, and a broad range of medical technologies. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a high sensitivity, microfabricated mass sensor functionalized with advanced sensor materials to create low-cost, low-power vapor sensing system. The proposed architecture fabricates a high frequency bulk acoustic resonator directly on the back-end of a Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS)-Integrated Chip (IC), which further improves the noise characteristics of the sensor. The direct integration approach proposed simplifies the architecture for bulk acoustic wave vapor sensors, allows for less noise, and reduces the parasitics present in the structure. The direct co-integration also allows for the fabrication of an array of mass sensors that permits the creation of an electronic nose, in which the response to multiple receptors can be used to classify vapor materials and reduce the effect of nonspecific responses. The silicon IC also may compensate for thermal drift, further improving the noise floor. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.