Sensory spin-out

Cambridge CMOS Sensors Limited (CCMOS) – a spin-out from Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering – has licensed technology from Warwick University that, it claims, will allow it to develop gas sensors that offer a significant improvement over those currently in use in portable instrumentation.

First off, the sensors under development will be able to operate at high temperatures of up to 500^oC, while consuming very low power – below 30mW. They will also have a fast thermal response time – this will be in the millisecond range as opposed to the seconds range that current state-of-the-art products offer.

The sensors themselves are fabricated in a foundry using a standard SOI CMOS process. A sensing layer of material sits on top of sensing electrodes made from the top high temperature metal layer of the device, which is exposed to allow it to contact to the sensitive layer on top of it.