Pressure and Hall sensors : What does MBE allow to do?

Abstract Good control of the quality of materials grown by MBE and the possibility to grow sophisticated heterostructures based on III–V compounds have opened the way to new opportunities for device applications in electronics and optoelectronics. The recent advances in low-dimensional systems and the use of technology developed for the main stream applications may lead to the emergence of new concepts for sensors. From this point of view, the GaAlAs/GaAs and pseudomorphic systems are particularly attractive since high-quality epilayers are now available from the industry. After mentioning peculiar properties of these materials, two kinds of applications are presented. Firstly, a high performance monolithic pressure sensor for high temperature (up to 200°C) and high pressure (up to 2 kbars) operations. Secondly, a magnetic sensor of high sensitivity and very low thermal drift with excellent metrological performances.