Integrated chemical sensor chip

• US 9,562,871 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2015
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sensirion AG (Sensirion Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Sensirion AG (Sensirion Holding AG)
• Inventors: Fuhrer, Samuel, Zimmerman, Leo, Lechner, Moritz, Mrcarica, Zeljko, Pace, Ferdinando
• Primary Examiner(s): Sines, Brian J
• Application Number:
  US14/826,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20160077031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 422/50, 422/68.1, 422/502, 422/503, 422/504, 422/83, 422/88, 422/98, 436/43
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/124 varying the temperature, e.g. in a cyclic manner
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/128 Microapparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/16 caused by burning or catalytic oxidation of surrounding material to be tested, e.g. of gas
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0008 Details concerning storage of calibration data, e.g. in EEPROM
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0009 General constructional details of gas analysers, e.g. portable test equipment G01N1/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

An integrated chemical sensor chip comprises on or integrated in a common substrate a chemically sensitive layer and a heater heating the sensitive layer. In addition, a memory is provided for the storage of a measurement routine, the measurement routine comprising instructions defining a heating process over time and instructions defining one or more measurement points in time. An I/O interface is provided for receiving a trigger for the measurement routine and for supplying a result of the measurement routine. An engine controls the heater and measures a resistance of the sensitive layer according the instructions of the measurement routine.

Claims

1. An integrated chemical sensor chip, comprising on or integrated in a common substrate

a chemically sensitive layer,

a heater for heating the sensitive layer,

a memory for the storage of a measurement routine, the measurement routine comprising instructions defining a heating process over time and instructions defining one or more measurement points in time,

an I/O interface for receiving a trigger for the measurement routine and for supplying a result of the measurement routine, and

an engine for controlling the heater and for measuring a resistance of the sensitive layer according to instructions of the measurement routine in response to receiving a trigger for the measurement routine,

wherein the engine is electrically interconnected with the sensitive layer and the heater on or in the substrate in an integrated circuit through which the engine receives a trigger as aforesaid and executes heating of the heater and taking measurements of the resistance of the sensitive layer.

2. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1,

wherein the measurement routine is stored in the memory in form of a macro.

3. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1,

wherein different measurement routines are stored in the memory.

4. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1,

wherein the engine comprises a state machine.

5. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1,

wherein the engine is hardwired in the integrated chemical sensor chip.

6. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1, comprising

a system controller configured to copy the instructions of the measurement routine from the memory to the engine for controlling the heater and for measuring the resistance, and in particular to copy the instructions of the measurement routine from the memory to the engine in response to interrupts requested from the engine.

7. The integrated chemical sensor chip of claim 1,

wherein the memory is a one-time programmable on-chip memory.

8. Portable electronic device, comprising

an integrated chemical sensor chip according to claim 1,

a processing unit,

wherein the processing unit comprises an I/O interface for communicating with the integrated chemical sensor chip,

wherein the processing unit is configured to send a trigger for a measurement routine via the I/O interface to the integrated chemical sensor chip, and is configured to receive a result of the measurement routine via the I/O interface.

9. The portable electronic device of claim 8,

wherein the processing unit is a non-real-time processing unit.

10. The portable electronic device of claim 8,

comprising a common housing for the integrated chemical sensor chip and the processing unit.

11. The portable electronic device of claim 8,

comprising a common carrier for the chemical sensor chip and the processing unit.

12. The portable electronic device of claim 8, which is one of one of a mobile phone, a handheld computer, an electronic reader, a tablet computer, a game controller, a pointing device, a photo or a video camera, a digital music player, an electronic wrist watch, a personal health tracking device, a headset, or a computer peripheral.