Integrated vertical parallel-plate capacitive humidity sensor

A high sensitivity capacitive chemical vapor sensing topology, a vertical parallel-plate sensor, was successfully integrated with CMOS testing electronics. The sensor was fabricated by etching a sacrificial aluminum layer in the CMOS stack and filling the resulting cavity with polyimide. The measured humidity response is a 0.31% change in capacitance per percent relative humidity. The temperature sensitivity of the sensor, an important specification for a sensor exposed to a variety of environmental conditions, is 0.19% °C−1. The rising and falling response time constants for a change in relative humidity are 70 and 85 s, respectively. The minimum detectable signal is 0.06 fF, corresponding to a limit of detection of 0.0023% relative humidity.