Non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) absorption spectroscopy is a widespread approach to gas sensing due to its selectivity and conceptual simplicity. One of the main challenges towards the development of fully integrated NDIR sensors is the design and fabrication of microstructures, typically waveguides, that can combine high sensitivity with the ease of integrability of other sensor elements (sources, filters, detectors). Here, we investigate theoretically and experimentally a class of coupled strip-array (CSA) waveguides realized on a SiO2/Si3N4 platform with mass semiconductor fabrication processes. We demonstrate that this class of waveguides shows comparable sensitivity for a wide range of presented geometries, making it a very promising platform for satisfying multiple sensor and fabrication requirements without loss of performance.
Abstract. The increasing popularity of environments equipped with sensors for convenience and with safety features, as in, for example, smart homes, greenhouses, or the interior of modern cars, demands a variety of sensor systems. In this respect, the sensing of ambient gases in the sense of air quality monitoring or leakage detection is one of the prominent applications. However, even though there are many different systems already available, the trend goes towards smaller and rather inconspicuous sensors which are embedded in the environment. We present the fabrication and characterization of integrated waveguides, which constitute an interesting platform for absorption spectroscopy in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) using the evanescent field of guided modes interacting with the analyte, thus leading to the absorption-induced attenuation of the mode. Corresponding simulations, characterizing the efficiency of the desired interaction, predict values for the confinement factor Γ and the intrinsic damping D for a waveguide geometry, which is then characterized by measurements. Furthermore, we discuss how these waveguides could be part of an integrated, non-dispersive, mid-IR sensor system fully integrated on a single chip. In this context, we present a way to maintain the quality of waveguides throughout the entire workflow needed to integrate a pyroelectric IR detector based on aluminum nitride (AlN).
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