Julien El-Sabahy
CEA-Leti, MINATEC Campus, Grenoble, France
October 28, 2014 | 12:30 to 01:00 | 540 Cory Hall
Host: John Huggins
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene or toluene are increasingly present in our environment and represent a significant risk for human healthcare. In order to detect such gases, sensors with sensitive layers are being developed to capture and concentrate these compounds in a selective and reversible manner. A method developed at CEA in collaboration with Apix is based on the use of Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). This choice provides high sensitivity but requires the deposition of a sensitive chemical layer on to the NEMS. Several organic and inorganic thin films were deposited by CVD techniques and characterized on 200 mm Si wafers. An experimental benchmark was established to study the affinity of toluene to chemical layers coated on Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM). Using this approach, several sensitive materials demonstrated high affinities toward toluene were developed. A simple model associated with numerical simulations was applied to these layers, providing an interpretation of their affinity but also their temporal response toward toluene. This model was also used in order to understand the impact of the chemical composition and microstructure on gas interaction.
www.cea.frwww.cea.fr/technologies/micro-and-nanotechnologies
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