Sensing in harsh environment, especially high temperature environment, is drawing more attention, with potential applications in energy sector. The motivations are that enhanced (pressure, temperature, chemical) sensing will allow more efficient operation, enabling condition- based monitoring and reducing unwanted emission. State-of-the-art sensing technology remains limited, either not capable of long-term online monitoring under high temperature due to materials failure or, occupying too much space. We propose to adapt MEMS fabrication process and concepts to our proposed research, by combining it with the acoustic wave based sensing methodology and high- temperature compatible materials, to make small, low power consuming sensors. While most of the SAW devices utilize bulk piezoelectric substrates, we propose to apply piezoelectric thin films to our sensors, combined with substrates commonly used in MEMS and microfabrication technologies, such as silicon, in order to achieve MEMS and CMOS compatible sensors.
Project end date: 02/04/15