According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the level of indoor pollutants is usually two to five times higher than that of outdoor levels. The importance of monitoring and controlling indoor air quality has led to increased interest in developing miniature, energy efficient gas sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity. The Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics is currently participating, along with 25 other academic and industrial partners from European countries, in a Eureka PENTA project, ESAIRQ (Environmental Sensors for Air Quality), spearheaded by Infineon Technologies AG. The participation of the department in ESAIRQ is funded by Malta Enterprise.
As part of ESAIRQ, the department is currently developing a compact infrared micro-spectrometer for multi-gas sensing applications. At the heart of the device is a novel MEMS scanning grating structure designed in-house using advanced multi-physics simulation software. The overall area of the die of the MEMS device is 10 mm2. Through EUROPRACTICE, the University of Malta has access to semiconductor foundries enabling the fabrication of MEMS and ASIC prototypes.
Earlier this year, EUROPRACTICE, along with X-FAB, the leading foundry group for analogue and mixed-signal semiconductor applications, announced the winning projects in their competition to encourage further MEMS-based innovation. The MEMS scanning grating project submitted by Dr Inġ. Russell Farrugia from the Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics was the runner-up in the competition. Applicants from the University of Bath and the Delft University of Technology placed first and third, respectively. As a reward, the University of Malta project was included in a multi-project wafer (MPW) run that utilises the X-FAB’s XMB10 MEMS process. With a 2 μm minimum feature size and a 10 μm silicon device layer thickness, the XMB10 process is highly optimized for multi-axis sensor implementations. The design was submitted for fabrication in June 2020 and will be delivered in January 2021.