High-performance MEMS-based gas chromatography column with integrated micro-heater

A high-performance MEMS-based gas chromatography (GC) device is proposed comprising a miniature serpentine column with dimensions of 3.2 m × 200 μm × 250 μm (length × width × depth) and an integrated Pt micro-heater. The column is fabricated on a Si die measuring 3.5 × 1.8 mm² using a wet etching process and is bonded to a Pyrex cover plate incorporating the Pt micro-heater via a thermal fusion process. The experimental results reveal that an applied voltage of 9.7 V is sufficient to maintain a constant temperature of 85°C for elution purposes. In addition, it is shown that the proposed device successfully detects the concentrations of both pure and mixed samples of four volatile organic compound (VOC) gases, namely acetone, toluene, methanol and benzene. Finally, the theoretical plate number obtained by the proposed MEMS-based GC device is shown to be 2~3 times higher than that obtained from a conventional capillary-based GC system under the same injection conditions.