An Integrated Chemical Sensor Array Using Carbon Black Polymers and a Standard Cmos Process
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AN INTEGRATED CHEMICAL SENSOR ARRAY USING CARBON BLACK POLYMERS AND A STANDARD CMOS PROCESS Jeffrey A. Dickson’, Michael S. Freund’, Nathan S. Lewis’, Rodney M. Goodman’ ’ Department of Electrical Engineering ‘Department of Chemistry California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 9 1125 even wearable chemical sensor arrays that rival the detection and ABSTRACT discrimination capabilities of mammalian olfaction. We have developed a new chemical sensor array by combining polymer-based chemiresistors with a standard integrated circuit DESIGN AND FABRICATION technology. We fabricated an array of addressable chemical sen- sor sites in a CMOS process, and then performed a post-processing The sensor consists of an array of individually addressable electri- step of electroless gold to create sensor contacts. We create sen- cal contacts, on which a polymer/carbon black mixture is sors by spraying a mixture of nonconductive polymers and carbon deposited. The sensor technology is well suited to integration with black particles onto the sensor sites. We demonstrate that an array on-chip circuitry. The array allows each sensor to be individually of diverse chemical sensors can perform discrimination of odors. addressed. INTRODUCTION Figure 1 shows the schematic of the unit sensor cell. The cell con- sists of a switch transistor and decoding logic. The availability of This paper describes the development of an array of chemical sen- only two metals layers in the IC process required transistors at sors. The sensors are based on the polymer approach of Lewis et each sensor cell to perform decoding. This circuitry (Ml-M4) al.[l, 21 employing carbon black and non-conducting polymers. decodes X and Y selection signals generated by shift registers on Exposure to particular analytes causes the sensors to swell, which the periphery of the array. This selection signal controls a switch increases the electrical resistance. By employing different poly- (M7) that toggles a current (Ii”) through the resistive sensor. In this mers we can create a large number of different broadly tuned design only one sensor is energized at a time to reduce power con- sensors. Since they can be fabricated at room temperature and a sumption. To reduce noise and the switch resistance, transistor change in resistance is easily measured, this technology is attrac- M7 occupies most of the sensor area. The decoding circuitry also tive for integration with active circuitry. This array is capable of selects a transmission gate (M5,M6,M8,M9) which passes the chemical discrimination that does not require external excitation or sensor voltage to a column output bus. This signal is amplified and transmitted off-chip for processing. The decoding circuitry is complicated signal processing like optical sensing[3]. Unlike complicated because the sensor occupies one of two available SAW devices, we can integrate large arrays on the same chip[4]. metal layers in the fabrication process we used for this chip, pre- Applications including environmental monitoring, narcotic and cluding the use of a simplified bus scheme. explosives detection have demanding chemical sensing require- ments. Our goal is to create small, inexpensive, low power and T lin M7 M5 M’, v-l I M2 .J Vout Figure 1 Schematic of three wire sensing cell. Transistors Ml -M4 form a NAND gate to select the cell, M7 switches the current source on sensor resistor, and M5,M6,M&M9 form a transmission gate to select the output on a column output line. The column output is buffered and passed off-chip. 0-9640024-3-4/hh2000/$20©2000TRF 162 Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop DOI 10.31438/trf.hh2000.39 Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, June 4-8, 2000 Figure 2 Photograph of the integrated sensor chip, after post fabrication electroless gold plating and polymer deposition by airbrush. The chip contains 492 sensor sites arranged in a 41X12 array. On this test chip 209 sensor sites have been covered with one of eight dif- ferent po lymer based ckemiresistors. Sk@ registers located along the left and bottom of the array select an individual sensor site, whose output is amplified and passed off chip. The chip is 0.5 cm by 0.25 cm Figure 2 shows the 0.5 cm X 0.25 cm chip, with 492 sensors ar- three plating steps. The surface preparation involves an acid zin- ranged as an array of 41 X 12 sites, fabricated in a 2.0 micron cate process to remove the native oxide and activate the aluminum process through the MOSIS design service. The dark vertical bars surface. This is followed by the three plating steps. Nickel is on the chip are deposited chemical sensors, discussed later in the plated first, followed by a two stages of gold plating: a monolayer text. process that plates the Nickel and then a build up stage that fin- ishes the plating. Figure 3 shows three sensors, plated with 9 A close-up of the individual sensor sites its shown in Figure 3. microns of Ni and 1 micron of Au. In addition to creating a non- There are two contacts to the sensor: one with the drive switch M7, reactive surface for the sensor contacts, the plating also creates and another connecting the sensor to signal ground. The ground wells that help constrain the sensor material during deposition. terminal is laid out as a ring around the perimeter of the cell and is common to all sensors. The interior of each cell contains the drive contact for the sensor. The ring structure was motivated by diffi- culties encountered in early sensor deposition trials - the carbon black particles would aggregate along the perimeter of a deposited sensor, creating a low resistance path. Moreover, the ring struc- ture allows us to experiment with depositing mixtures of sensor materials across the chip[5]. We deposit the sensor polymer be- tween these two contacts, directly on top of the active circuitry. We make the sensors rectangular to increase the contact area for the interior contact, as well as to reduce contact noise and l/f noise due to the non-uniform electrical field[6]. We use a standard commercial foundry for the fabrication of the integrated circuits. The top layer of Aluminum is used for the sensor contact. Unfortunately, the native aluminum oxide that Figure 3 Picture of three sensor sites after the electroless gold forms on the contacts prevents depositing the sensors without a plating. The central bars are the switched output node of each post-processing step. Since dedicated wafer runs are cost prohibi- individual sensor. The surrounding conductor is a common tive for small prototyping runs, this step must be performed on the ground. The sensor material is deposited on top of the chip, form- individual chip die returned from the foundry. This precludes the ing the sensor between the central contact and the surrounding use of a conventional mask based approach, since it is difficult to ground use a resist mask on an individual die. The sensors are a combination of a particular polymer and carbon black particles. To prepare the sensor material we combine 20 mg To create suitable contacts we use an electroless Ni/Au process of Carbon Black and 80 mg of the polymer in powder form. The that requires no masking from Stapleton Technologies (Long polymers and solvents are shown in Table 1. The Carbon Black Beach, California). This process can be performed easily on indi- we used is a furnace black from Cabot Co. (Billerica, MA). We vidual die with simple equipment and requires only seven place the mixture in an ultrasonic bath for a minimum of five min- procedures: four involving cleaning and surface preparation and 163 utes to suspend the carbon black particles before depositing the 51 : sensors. 01 -i , , . I I 0 2 4 6 8 1C Table 1 Listing of the eight polymers and the corresponding sol- Input Current (lOE-6A) vents used in the fabrication of the chemiresistors. Figure 5 Voltage vs. Current sweep of an individual sensor node, To deposit the sensor material on the surface of the integrated cir- demonstrating its linear resistive nature, At <IV output the col- cuit we employed an airbrush. A sheet of polyamide 50 microns umn amplifier does not operate, and the deviation from linear is thick is used as a physical mask to define the sensors. Apertures due to errors in the amplifier. are cut in the polyamide using a computer-controlled laser. While other materials and processes are available to make this mask, the To test the sensors we use an automated flow system to generate polyamide gaskets well to the surface of the chip. In addition, the solvent vapors at a specific vapor pressure. Mass flow controllers ability to see through the polyamide allows us to position the mask regulate a laboratory air supply through ceramic frits in glass bub- accurately. We are able to create apertures as small as 50 microns blers filled with the desired solvent. using this technique, enabling us to spray individual sensor sites. We sprayed eight different polymers (Table 1) in columns two Figure 6 shows the temporal response of a p-vinyl acetate sensor to sensors (270 pm) wide. Figure 4 shows a close-up of the sprayed a series of random analyte exposures at 5% vapor pressure. After chip, demonstrating the ability to fabricate small sensors on the the analyte is removed the sensor returns to its nominal value. We chip. The spraying of the polymer allows us to create thin, uni- use the maximum percentage change in resistance during an expo- form films of sensor material. Previously we used a direct sure as the output response. deposition technique using a fine tip that resulted in uneven depo- sition and thick films.