Pirani gauge based on alternative self-heating of silicon nanowire

This work reports on the realization of the smallest Pirani gauge ever, based upon highly-doped silicon nanowires. This paper details the fabrication process and the characterization of the thermal properties of Si nanowires, such as thermal conductivity and thermal coefficient of resistivity for various working temperatures in the 300K-700K range. A dynamic transduction technique, based on the 3-omega measurement is described and the device performances (i.e. sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio) are measured. With the tested devices a resolution below 5%/Hz^1/2 is obtained in the 0.1mbar-1bar range.