Printed Miniaturized Platinum Heater on Ultra-Thin Ceramic Membrane for Mox Gas Sensors

The combination of aerosol-jet printing and laser micromilling technology makes it possible to fabricate the ceramics MEMS platforms and SMD packages by using their digital models. It is shown that combination of platinum metallization for the heater and ceramic materials is the best choice for the microelectronic MEMS actuator and sensor package which should be installed in devices aimed for work under harsh environmental conditions. The developed metal-oxide semiconductor gas sensors in miniaturized package with low power consumption can be extremely useful in modern agriculture facilities. The idea of their integration into livestock facilities, food-storage, forestry, fish farming and horticulture seems quite promising for developing smart agriculture, where devices must work under harsh environmental conditions such as high humidity level and temperature. To fulfill the demand of these types of sensors their mass production should be cheap and not require a clean room. In this work we present a way of fabrication of all parts of gas sensor including a package using only one setup, which allows us to reduce the cost of the final product and simplify the whole production process in order to make the technology available for many different agricultural applications.