Micromechanical microfabrication of chemical sensors.

Chemical sensors, and specifically amperometric electrochemical sensors for CO and catalytic combustible gas sensors, have been commercially available for dozens of years. Microfabricated amperometric sensors have been under investigation for more than 10 yeats, yet no microfabricated CO sensor with specifications near that of the commercial amperometric sensor is readily available. With the active focus on MEMS in recent years, a significant change in the approach to instrumentation has resulted such as the Lab-on-a-Chip concept. Several micromechanical structures and micromechanical processes are compatible with chemical sensors. Preliminary design work has led us to consider some novel chemical sensor structures and fabrication methods.