Micro-Electro-Chemical-Systems (MECS) as a Technology Platform for Microfabrication of Electrochemical Gas Sensors Using Standard MEMS Fabrication Processes
ABSTRACT
Microfabrication has emerged as a powerful tool to produce miniaturized sensors at low-cost in order to provide the required hardware for our digital age. Standard processes have emerged as the most efficient and trustworthy to achieve this, and the billions of MEMS devices produced routinely reflects this more than any. As traditional, bulky sensor technology undergoes a transition to miniaturization, complying with existing processes found in MEMS foundries is often a difficult, if not impossible transition without exploiting novel innovations.
Electrochemical gas sensors are one such class of sensors. Despite their widespread use for over 50 years, they still remain bulky and/or expensive relative to MEMS devices, and have yet to be miniaturized and integrated into a MEMS-like fabrication process using standard technologies used in the industry. The reason for this is because the liquid electrolyte, which is an ion-conducve medium comprised of solvent and dissolved salts fundamental to the operation of the electrochemical gas sensor, is not easily patterned on the chip in a scalable, stable, repeatable fashion.
To solve this problem, we have developed MECS-TechnologyTMl, which is a material science & microfabrication innovation rooted in fundamental synthetic chemistry. By employing the use of a fully solid-state, lithography-compatible electrolyte polymer material, we replace the liquid/gel electrolyte bottleneck to microfabrication of electrochemical gas sensors in MEMS foundries without the need for any non-standard process, such as printing or molding of any type. Our electrolyte can be patterned to create microstructures containing no liquids or volatile substances within the final substance, yet retain the chemical and electronic properties of liquid electrolytes commonly used for electrochemical cells and other electronic devices, such as batteries or capacitors.
In this presentation, we present how novel electrolyte chemistries have been developed to enable this technology, and highlight how they can be leveraged to electrochemical sensors on wafers using only standard techniques employed in MEMS foundries. Manufacturing, packaging, lifetime, and performance
of these sensors are to be presented and contextualized in the gas sensor market. We discuss how this technology can enable “chip level” vs system-level multi-gas sensing electrochemical sensing, thus broadening the applicability of MECS-TechnologyTM.
BIOGRAPHY
Ryan completed his PhD in synthetic chemistry from Western University in London, Ontario in 2015, focusing on the synthesis of novel electrolyte materials. He soon after began his post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Colloid Research in Potsdam, Germany to apply his synthesis knowledge to improve the performance of electrochemical devices, like batteries, sensors, and fuel cells. In 2017 he founded his own research group at the institute and became Group Leader for a team of researchers. In 2021, Ryan co-founded FaradaIC Sensors with Dr. Alexey Yakushenko with the goal to apply the benefits of electrolyte materials to microfabricated electrochemical gas sensors, and produce them on-mass and fully solid state for the first time. He is currently CEO of the company.