A New Approach in the Field of Hydrogen Gas Sensing Using MEMS Based 3C-SiC Microcantilevers

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the ability of 3CSiC microcantilevers (μCs) to monitor binary gas mixture without sensitive coating. Here, 3CSiC is chosen in particular, as the newly designed sensor will be placed in a radioactive environment. The change in gas concentration is identified using relative shifts in the cantilever’s mechanical resonance frequency (∆fr). The presented microcantilevers work on electromagnetic actuation and inductive detection. In this paper, the fabrication process, optical characterization results using laser Doppler vibrometry and test results under a gas mixture environment are demonstrated. The presented limit of detection shows the ability of 3CSiCμCs to detect less than 1% of hydrogen in nitrogen, which makes them suitable for the targeted application.