Novel integrated thermal pressure gauge and read-out circuit by CMOS IC technology

We report a new type of fully CMOS-compatible thermal pressure sensors for the range from 10/sup 2/ to 10/sup 6/ Pa. The sensors are fabricated with a commercial 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process followed by fully CMOS-compatible post-processing, consisting of photolithography and sacrificial metal etching. The device is co-integrated with a compact driving/read-out circuit that enables operation of the sensor at constant relative temperature.<<ETX>>