FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF HYDROGEN SENSORS BASED ON TRANSFERRED GRAPHENE SYNTHESIZED BY ANNEALING OF Ni/3C-SiC THIN FILMS

This paper presents the formation of graphene and its application to hydrogen sensors. In this work, the graphene was synthesized by annealing process of 3C-SiC thin films with Ni transition layer. The Ni film was coated on a 3C-SiC layer grown thermal oxided Si substrates and used extracts of the substrate's carbon atoms under rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Various parameters such as ramping speed, annealing time and cooling rate were evaluated for the optimized combination allowed for the reproducible synthesis of graphene using 3C-SiC thin films. Transfer process performed by Ni layer etching in HF solution and transferred graphene onto SiO2 shows the IG/ID ratio of 2.73. Resistivity hydrogen sensors were fabricated and evaluated with Pd and Pt nanoparticles in the room temperature with hydrogen range of 10–50 ppm. The response factor of devices with the Pd catalyst was 1.3 when exposed to 50 ppm hydrogen and it is able to detect as low as 10 ppm hydrogen at room temperature.