Summary: IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 9, NO. 3, MARCH 2009 263
Pirani Vacuum Gauges Using Silicon-on-Glass and
Dissolved-Wafer Processes for the Characterization
of MEMS Vacuum Packaging
Ebru Sagiroglu Topalli, Kagan Topalli, Member, IEEE, Said Emre Alper, Tulay Serin, and
Tayfun Akin, Member, IEEE
Abstract--This paper presents the design and implementation
of Pirani vacuum gauges for the characterization of vacuum
packaging of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Various
Pirani vacuum gauges are fabricated with two different standard
in-house fabrication processes, namely the silicon-on-glass (SOG)
process and dissolved-wafer process (DWP). The Pirani gauges
utilize meander-shaped suspended silicon coils as the heaters and
two isolated silicon islands in the close proximity of the heater that
function as dual-heat sinks to enhance the sensitivity and dynamic
range as compared to a microbridge with a single heat sink.
The gauges are designed to occupy an area of 4 mm 1.5 mm.
The DWP Pirani gauge fabricated with a structural thickness
of 14 m and a gap of 2 m shows a measured sensitivity of
4 2 104 (K/W)/Torr in a dynamic range of 10­2000 mTorr.

Source: Akin, Tayfun - Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University

Collections: Engineering