<title>Silicon integrated microsensors</title>

Abstract

This paper reviews the field of silicon-based integrated microsensors. These devices are implemented using fabrication technologies developed for integrated circuits, and lend themselves easily to low cost and high volume production. They are typically much smaller, more precise and stable, have less drift, and are much more reliable than their discrete counterparts. The addition of on-chip integrated circuits to the silicon sensors enables the processing and amplification of low level signals recorded by the sensors, and allows the device to be more easily interfaced and integrated into an electronic measurement and control system. The fabrication of silicon integrated microsensors is reviewed, and a number of examples are discussed. These examples include a multichannel integrated silicon microprobe for the recording of neural signals form the brain cells, and a multi-element infrared thermal detector based on silicon-gold thermopiles.