Binary MEMS gas sensors

A novel sensing mechanism for electrostatic MEMS that employs static bifurcation-based sensing and binary detection is demonstrated. It is implemented as an ethanol vapour sensor that exploits the static pull-in bifurcation. Sensor detection of 5 ppm of ethanol vapour in dry nitrogen, equivalent to a detectable mass of 165 pg, is experimentally demonstrated. Sensor robustness to external disturbances is also demonstrated. A closed-form expression for the sensitivity of statically detected electrostatic MEMS sensors is derived. It is shown that the sensitivity of static bifurcation-based binary electrostatic MEMS sensors represents an upper bound on the sensitivity of static detection for given sensor dimensions and material properties. (paper)