Design, development and operational concept of an advanced MEMS IR source for miniaturized gas sensor systems

Miniaturized non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensing systems require as key components bright thermal infrared (IR) sources that can be modulated at reasonably high speed to allow high-sensitivity lock-in detection to be applied. In addition such sources should provide a stable emission /sup n/affected by both short-term environmental changes as well as long-term drift. As miniaturized light bulbs, widely used in commercial NDIR gas sensing systems, cannot fulfil these requirements we have developed miniaturized thermal IR emitters with built-in monitoring and self-test features.