Patent ID: 8263002

Claim:
A process for fabricating a zinc oxide nanorod hydrogen sensor using focused ion beam (FIB) in-situ lift-out technique, consisting essentially of: mounting a micromanipulator with a focused ion beam (FIB) needle adjacent to a nanosensor template surface consisting of a glass substrate with at least two pre-deposited, external aluminum (Al) electrodes; using a microscope and a micromanipulator to separate a plurality of individual zinc oxide nanorod structures formed on a first substrate surface; using the micromanipulator to arrange one of the plurality of individual zinc oxide nanorod structures on the nanosensor template surface by contacting the individual zinc oxide nanorod structure with the tip of an FIB needle on the first substrate surface where the plurality of zinc oxide nanorod structures are formed; attaching a first intermediate straight zinc oxide nanorod linearly to the tip of the FIB needle, then linearly attaching a second selected zinc oxide nanorod to the intermediate zinc oxide nanorod; raising the FIB needle and thereby moving the attached first intermediate zinc oxide nanorod and the second selected zinc oxide nanorod onto the nanosensor template with at least two pre-deposited external electrodes; positioning the second selected zinc oxide nanorod on the nanosensor template and fixing the second selected zinc oxide nanorod to at least one of the predeposited external electrodes of the nanosensor template; separating the first intermediate zinc oxide nanorod from the second selected zinc oxide nanorod that is fixed to at least one electrode of the nanosensor template; lifting the FIB needle and the attached first intermediate single zinc oxide nanorod away from the nanosensor template; and thereby fabricating a room temperature, zinc oxide nanorod based hydrogen gas sensor on the nanosensor template surface.