Numerical modeling of a micromachined thermal conductivity gas pressure sensor

Author

Allegretto, W. ; Shen, Bing ; Haswell, P. ; Lai, Zhongsheng ; Robinson, A.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Math., Alberta Univ., Edmonton, Alta., Canada

Volume

13

Issue

10

fYear

1994

fDate

10/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1247

Lastpage

1256

Abstract

We have developed a software package that simulates the operation of a silicon micromachined CMOS thermal conductivity gas pressure gauge. The performance of actual devices was compared against the simulated operation and was found to be in good agreement. The 3-dimensional simulation was reduced to two 2-dimensional simulations to reduce complexity. The two equations resulting from steady state energy balance considerations were discretized and an iterative nonlinear Gauss-Seidel procedure applied to solve the system of equations. Temperature profiles and contours were calculated and the effect of geometric and materials modifications was demonstrated

Keywords

digital simulation; electric sensing devices; electronic engineering computing; elemental semiconductors; gas sensors; insulated gate field effect transistors; iterative methods; pressure sensors; semiconductor device models; silicon; CMOS; Si; Si devices; gas pressure sensor; iterative nonlinear Gauss-Seidel procedure; materials modifications; micromachined devices; software package; steady state energy balance considerations; temperature profiles; thermal conductivity; two-dimensional simulations; Gaussian processes; Nonlinear equations; Numerical models; Pressure gauges; Semiconductor device modeling; Silicon; Software packages; Steady-state; Temperature; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0070

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/43.317468

Filename

317468