Fabrication at wafer level of miniaturized gas sensors based on SnO2 nanorods deposited by PECVD and gas sensing characteristics

SnO2 nanorods were successfully deposited on 3" Si/SiO2 wafers by inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) and a wafer-level patterning of nanorods layer for miniaturized solid state gas sensor fabrication were performed. Uniform needle-shaped SnO2 nanorods in situ grown were obtained under catalyst- and high temperature treatment-free growth condition. These nanorods have an average diameter between 5 and 15 nm and a length of 160-300 nm. The SnO2-nanorods based gas sensors were tested towards NH3 and CH3OH and gas sensing tests show remarkable response, showing promising and repeatable results compared with the SnO2 thin films gas sensors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.