AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition
    MEMS and NEMS Group Wednesday Sessions
       Session MN+2D+AN+NS-WeA

Paper MN+2D+AN+NS-WeA11
Etched Silicon Microcolumn For Tunable Thermal Gradient Gas Chromatography

Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 5:40 pm, Room 202B

Session: IoT Session: MEMS for IoT: Chemical and Biological Sensing
Presenter: Aaron Davis, Brigham Young University
Authors: A.C. Davis, Brigham Young University
P. Schnepf, Brigham Young University
P.S. Ng, Brigham Young University
R.R. Vanfleet, Brigham Young University
R.C. Davis, Brigham Young University
B.D. Jensen, Brigham Young University
Correspondent: Click to Email
The connection of the digital and physical world will be strengthened by chemical sensors that can measure complex mixtures of molecules. Gas chromatography is the gold standard for identification of volatiles and gases. Conventional gas chromatography systems have unparalleled resolution, but are large and power intensive. Microcolumn gas chromatographs are more portable but have dramatically reduced resolution. Combining the resolution of conventional systems with the size factor of micro systems is important for improving the affordability and portability of high performance gas analysis. Recent work has demonstrated feasibility of high resolution separation of gases in a benchtop-scale short-column system by controlling thermal gradients through the column. In order to further decrease the size of a gas chromatography system, microfabrication techniques were used to demonstrate the fabrication of a thermally controllable micro-scale gas chromatographic column with a small footprint (3 cm square). To fabricate microcolumns we are using deep-reactive-ion-etching, nickel evaporation, and wafer bonding. The design of the 20 cm column utilizes 21 individually controllable thin film heaters and solid conduction cooling to produce the desired thermal profile.