Micro-Power CMOS Mid-infrared spectrometer-on-a-chip

该项目利用剑桥大学在互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)类器件和技术方面的世界领先专业知识和研究基础设施，以及华威大学提供的化学微传感器技术，通过确定英国在气体传感发展方面的领先地位，开发未来的智能传感器和生成创新的技术平台。中红外(MIR)光谱区域对于现实应用非常重要，因为它包含可用于识别许多有机和无机分子的特征吸收线。人们越来越需要为医疗保健、环境监测或工业过程控制中涉及化学分析的许多应用开发新的创新传感技术。此外，消费电子领域的创新预计将以最高的速度增长，集成到智能手机、平板电脑、可穿戴设备和医疗设备中的MIR传感器将以更高效的方式提供医疗或其他服务，并使患者和纳税人受益。与其他目前的技术相比，微电子机械系统(MEMS)最近被认为是用于各种气体传感器的紧凑、集成的MIR源，被证明是高效的。此外，它们与在尺寸、重量和功率方面具有明显优势的CMOS工艺兼容，并进一步为利用标准的大批量半导体制造工艺与消费电子产品集成等应用提供了降低成本的可能性。剑桥大学和华威大学开创了各种基于MEMS的创新传感器和技术，例如无过滤器气体检测和智能电子舌头。这些新开发的传感器和技术在光谱学中具有巨大的潜力，可用于设计和工程，例如，针对未满足的临床需求的解决方案或改进的新型医疗技术。剑桥大学和华威大学的研究小组在产生应用型科学研究和将技术转移到行业方面有着良好的记录，是世界领先的CMOS微传感器技术研究，以开发针对特定未满足需求的创新解决方案。该提案旨在首次为特定应用开发集成了CMOS的MIR光谱器件，并利用了若干交叉能力：a)定制设计具有更高发射率的MEMS MIR发射器，探索不同的纳米材料集成技术；b)开发新的过滤和传感技术，以实现分光光度分析；以及c)通过使用相关标记促进福祉和健康的应用领域开发光谱技术。与工业和医疗合作伙伴的强大合作伙伴关系旨在确保快速的市场翻译。

This project capitalises on the world-leading expertise and research infrastructure on complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-type devices and technologies available at the University of Cambridge and chemical microsensor technologies available at Warwick University to develop future smart sensors and generate innovative technology platforms by ascertaining UK leadership in gas sensing development.The mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region is very important for real-life applications because it contains characteristic absorption lines that can be used to identify many organic and inorganic molecules. There is an increasing need to develop new innovative sensing technologies for many applications involving chemical analysis in healthcare, environmental monitoring or industrial process control. In addition, innovation in the consumer electronics segment is expected to grow at the highest rate for MIR sensors integrated into smartphones, tablets, wearable and medical devices, with the vision to deliver health or other services in more efficient ways and with benefits to patients and taxpayers. Compared to other current technologies, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) recently came up as compact, integrated MIR sources used in a variety of gas sensors proven to be energy efficient. In addition, they are compatible with CMOS processes offering clear advantages in size, weight, and power, and further open the possibility of cost reduction leveraging standard high-volume semiconductor manufacturing processes for applications such as integration with consumer electronics. Various innovative MEMS based sensors and technologies have been pioneered at the University of Cambridge such as filterless gas detection and at the Warwick University such as the smart electronic tongue. These newly developed sensors and technologies have great potential for use in spectroscopy that can be exploited for the design and engineering of, e.g. novel healthcare technologies towards solutions or improvements of unmet clinical needs.The Cambridge and Warwick research groups have an excellent track record for generating applied scientific research and in transferring technology to industry as world-leaders in CMOS microsensor technologies research to develop innovative solutions for specific unmet needs. The proposal aims to develop, for the first time, CMOS integrated MIR spectroscopic devices for specific applications and draws on several cross-cutting capabilities: a) custom-design MEMS MIR emitters with enhanced emissivity, exploring different nanomaterial integration techniques; b) development of novel filtering and sensing technologies for enabling spectrophotometry; and c) development of spectroscopic technologies through the application areas using relevant markers for well-being and fitness. Strong partnership with industrial and medical partners aims to ensure rapid market translation.