A gas chromatographic air analyzer fabricated on a silicon wafer

TLDR

The authors optimized a silicon‑based GC sensor to separate gaseous hydrocarbons in under 10 s, targeting use in portable air monitors, implanted experiments, and planetary probes. The system was fabricated on a silicon wafer using photolithography and chemical etching, integrating a sample injection valve, a 1.5‑m capillary column, and a batch‑produced thermal conductivity detector to reduce size by roughly three orders of magnitude. A miniature gas chromatographic air analyzer was successfully built, demonstrating rapid hydrocarbon separation on a wafer‑scale platform.

Abstract

A miniature gas analysis system has been built based on the principles of gas chromatography (GC). The major components are fabricated in silicon using photolithography and chemical etching techniques, which allows size reductions of nearly three orders of magnitude compared to conventional laboratory instruments. The chromatography system consists of a sample injection valve and a 1.5-m-long separating capillary column, which are fabricated on a substrate silicon wafer. The output thermal conductivity detector is separately batch fabricated and integrably mounted on the substrate wafer. The theory of gas chromatography has been used to optimize the performance of the sensor so that separations of gaseous hydrocarbon mixtures are performed in less than 10 s. The system is expected to find application in the areas of portable ambient air quality monitors, implanted biological experiments, and planetary probes.