Study of Thin Film Tin Oxide for Reliability as Gas Sensing Material

Semiconductor Metal Oxide (SMO) films are widely used in gas sensors application. The SMO film is typically heated to an operating temperature of 100°C and above to sense the target gases, using a microheater. The stability and reliability of the microheater and the SMO is critical for making a sensing product out of it. The thermal stability of the dielectric films used in the integration along with the degradation of the sensitive film is the aim of our study. Exposure to high temperature, causes the different layers to expand differently. These layers have different thermal expansion coefficient, that when contracting cause the films to crack.