Ceramic Micro Heater Technology for Gas Sensors

The paper presents the design and manufacturing steps of micro heaters, built on ceramic suspended membranes for gas sensor applications. The micro heaters are designed and fabricated by combining laser milling techniques, and conductive ceramic technology. Trenches are created in the ceramic substrate in order to define the geometry of the heater using laser processing of the substrate. The heater is completed by filling the trenches with conductive ceramic paste and then baking to remove the solvent from the paste. The final step involves releasing the membrane by laser milling, enabling it to be suspended on four bridges, to minimise the dissipation of the heat in the substrate. The temperature of the heater element was measured with a heat camera from FLIR 40 system comparing the case of the heater positioned on top of a released membrane and that of the non-released membrane. The simulation of the heater build on top of a released membrane was compared with the heater measurements