Silicon substrate-integrated hollow waveguide for miniaturized optical gas sensing

Gas sensors have a wide variety of applications. Among various existing gas sensing technologies, optical gas sensors have outstanding advantages. The development of the Internet of Things and consumer electronics has put stringent requirements on miniaturized gas sensing technology. Here, we demonstrate a chip-scale silicon substrate-integrated hollow waveguide (Si-iHWG) to serve as an optical channel and gas cell in an optical gas sensor. It is fabricated through silicon wafer etching and wafer bonding. The Si-iHWG chip is further assembled with an off-chip light source and detector to build a fully functional compact nondispersive infrared (NDIR) CO₂ sensor. The chip size is 10 mm × 9 mm, and the dimension of the sensor excluding the microcontroller board is 50 mm × 25 mm × 16 mm. This chip solution with compactness, versatility, robustness, and low cost provides a cost-effective platform for miniaturized optical sensing applications ranging from air quality monitoring to consumer electronics.