JMEMS Letters Highly Responsive Metal Oxide (V₂O₅)-Based NEMS Pirani Gauge for In-Situ Hermeticity Monitoring

The letter reports highly sensitive metal oxide (V2O5) based NanoElectromechanical Systems (NEMS) Pirani gauge for pressure monitoring of a packaged device. The absence of additional supplementary material in the sensing element increases the sensing area and enables the in-situ monitoring capability. Considering the feasibility of the idea, the design is simulated and verified with the experimental results of the fabricated device. The device shows a sensitivity of 5.76 % per decade-Pa in the working range from 4 Pa to $2.7\times 10^{3}$ Pa. The maximum average temperature of the sensing element is 48 °C at 4 Pa. It ensures corrosion-free operation and increases the lifetime of the device. The computed thermal response time of the device is ~500 ms at a power consumption of $285\mu \text{W}$ . [2020-0335]