CMOS AlN and ScAlN Pyroelectric Detectors with Optical Enhancement for Detection of CO2 and CH4 Gases

Abstract Gas sensors are useful for monitoring of greenhouse gases. As the move toward complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) compatible pyroelectric room temperature detectors is gaining traction due to its scalability to 8‐in./12‐in. wafer area and integrable with CMOS electronics, CMOS compatible aluminum nitride (AlN)‐ and scandium aluminum nitride (ScAlN)‐based pyroelectric detectors are developed for sensing of CO2and CH4gases, which are two of the greenhouse gases that contribute significantly to global warming. Leveraging gas absorption at respective mid‐infrared (IR) wavelengths, CO2 and CH4 gases are detected at various concentrations with fast response time ≈1 s. A compound parabolic collector (CPC) is designed and integrated into the gas sensor to enhance the optical flux received by the detector, which demonstrates ≈10× signal improvement in its presence. Further factors such as the effect of sensing area reduction and response to random gas concentrations are also tested on AlN‐ and ScAlN‐based pyroelectric detectors respectively to observe the gas sensing behaviors of both detectors. The results obtained provide further understanding of the behavior of CMOS AlN‐ and ScAlN‐based pyroelectric detectors as IR gas sensors, which can potentially inspire new design and design selection for various gas sensing applications.