Gas sensors benefit from union between III–V materials and silicon

Researchers at Leti recently created a photonic coupler with one waveguide made from III–V materials and another from silicon. The achievement marks an advance toward fast, accurate, low-cost multigas sensors. A complete gas testing system including waveguides would be capable of taking measurements at the liter scale, rather than at the cubic meter scale required by today’s IR spectrometers.

The sensors have a mid-IR source made of III–V materials, which covers the majority of complex gases. Ultimately, they should be able to seek out predefined gases, such as for biomedical and industrial testing uses.

Research and development is slated to continue under EU-backed projects, and MirSense, a spinoff of Leti and 3-5-lab, was established to commercialize the future products.
 

Contact: laurent.duraffourg@cea.fr

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