A low-cost, nanowatt, millimeter-scale memristive-vacuum sensor

This work demonstrates a low-power, light-weight, and cost-efficient vacuum pressure sensor and air leak detector based on 2 mm ×2 mm Cu/HfO2/ p^+ -Si memristor device. The operating principle of the proposed sensor relies on monitoring the off-state resistance ( R_off ) of the device, wherein the experimental results show that the R_off value is inversely proportional to the vacuum pressure. The fabricated sensors demonstrated a sensitivity of 493 Torr-1 and power consumption as low as ∼ 8 nW, when tested in a wide range of sub-atmospheric pressure ( 4.9× 10^-5 - 760 ) Torr, making them highly suitable for low-power applications. Furthermore, it is shown that the sensor can be integrated with a microcontroller-based circuitry to serve as a standalone sensing system.</p