Design, Modeling and Simulation of CMOS-MEMS Piezoresistive Cantilever Based Carbon Dioxide Gas Sensor for Capnometry

This paper reports design, modeling and simulation of MEMS based sensor working in dynamic mode with fully differential piezoresistive sensing for monitoring the concentration of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) gas in human breath called capnometer. CO2 being a very important biomarker, it is desirable to extend the scope of its monitoring beyond clinical use to home and ambulatory services. Currently the scope of capnometers and its adaption is limited by high cost, large size and high power consumption of conventional capnometers. In recent years, MEMS based micro resonant sensors have received considerable attention due to their potential as a platform for the development of many novel physical, chemical, and biological sensors with small size, low cost and low power requirements. The sensor is designed using 0.35 micron CMOS technology. CoventorWare and MATLAB have been used as simulation software. According to the developed model and simulation results the resonator has resonant frequency 57393 Hz and mass sensitivity of 3.2 Hz/ng. The results show that the longitudinal relative change of resistance is 0.24%/mu m while the transverse relative change of resistance is -0.03%/mu m.