High-temperature MEMS Heater Platforms: Long-term Performance of Metal and Semiconductor Heater Materials

Micromachined thermal heater platforms offer low electrical power consumptionand high modulation speed, i.e. properties which are advantageous for realizing non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas- and liquid monitoring systems. In this paper, we report oninvestigations on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based infrared (IR) emitter devices heated byemploying different kinds of metallic and semiconductor heater materials. Our resultsclearly reveal the superior high-temperature performance of semiconductor over metallicheater materials. Long-term stable emitter operation in the vicinity of 1300 K could beattained using heavily antimony-doped tin dioxide (SnO2:Sb) heater elements.