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US 8,410,562 B2Granted
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for micromechanical gas chemical sensing capacitor
AssigneeCarnegie Mellon University
InventorsNathan Lazarus, Gary Fedder, Sarah Bedair, Chiung Lo
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Abstract
A capacitive chemical sensor, along with methods of making and using the sensor are provided. The sensors described herein eliminate undesirable capacitance by etching away the substrate underneath the capacitive chemical sensor, eliminating most of the substrate capacitance and making changes in the chemical-sensitive layer capacitance easier to detect.
Claims20
A capacitive sensor, comprising:
- a. a semiconductor substrate having a well;
- and
- b. one or more conductor pairs attached to the substrate at an attachment point and extending over the well, defining an air gap between the conductor pair and the substrate, each conductor pair comprising a first and second conductor spaced-apart to define a capillary gap and further comprising a chemical-sensitive polymer dielectric material or a chemical-sensitive nanocomposite dielectric material in the capillary gap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.