Thermal simulation and package investigation of wireless gas sensors microsystems

Gas sensor arrays based on metal oxides operating at high temperature are commonly used in many application fields. They can operate on different principles and each sensor may show very different responses to the individual gases in the environment. Data coming from the array can be merged for reliable gas detection. One point which is common to the different sensors types is that the atmosphere to be sensed must flow on or through the sensor itself. This work investigates air flows in gas sensor packages, and proposes a new package to improve gas exchange through natural convection, aiming to allow the gas detection in the case of very small gas concentrations. The study is based on multiphysics finite element method simulations using a commercial software tool.