Micromachined Hotplate Platform for the Investigation of Ink-Jet Printed, Functionalized Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

This paper describes a novel micromachined platform serving as an interface between nanosized, gas sensitive metal oxide particles, and the macroscopic world. Through a combination of ink-jet printing and microelectromechanical systems technologies, it thus becomes possible to quickly test and characterize new nanosized metal oxide particles with respect to their gas sensitivity. Within the framework of this report, we describe the design considerations, thermal finite-element method simulations, processing, characterization, and utilization of the platform. Due to the low-power consumption, the hotplate provides an experimental platform to test nanoparticle-based metal oxide gas sensors for mobile systems.