Ultra-compact and high-performance suspended aluminum scandium nitride Lamb wave humidity sensor with a graphene oxide layer

Abstract

The utilization of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology holds great significance for developing compact and high-performance humidity sensors in human healthcare, and the Internet of Things. However, several drawbacks of the current MEMS humidity sensors limit their applications, including their long response time, low sensitivity, relatively large sensing area, and incompatibility with a complementary metal–oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. To address these problems, a suspended aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) Lamb wave humidity sensor utilizing a graphene oxide (GO) layer is firstly designed and fabricated. The theoretical and experimental results both show that the AlScN Lamb wave humidity sensor exhibits high sensing performance. The mass loading sensitivity of the sensor is one order higher than that of the normal surface acoustic wave (SAW) humidity sensor based on an aluminum nitride (AlN) film; thus the AlScN Lamb wave humidity sensor achieves high sensitivity (∼41.2 ppm per % RH) with only an 80 nm-thick GO film. In particular, the as-prepared suspended AlScN Lamb wave sensors are able to respond to the wide relative humidity (0–80% RH) change in 2 s, and the device size is ultra-compact (260 μm × 72 μm). Moreover, the sensor has an excellent linear response in the 0–80% RH range, great repeatability and long-term stability. Therefore, this work brings opportunities for the development of ultra-compact and high-performance humidity sensors.