•Low power consumption and high selectivity for carbon dioxide sensor is proposed.•The sensing mechanism is electrochemical reaction based on solid electrolyte.•All fabrication processes are based on CMOS-compatible MEMS processes, which are feasible for mass production. Micro carbon dioxide gas sensor with low power consumption and high selectivity was fabricated based on micro-heater and electrochemical operation method. Li3PO4 thick film for solid electrolyte and Li2CO3 thick film for sensing material were deposited successively using screen printing technique on Si substrate in the form of slurry. In structure of micro-heater, the resistances of the two semi-circled Pt heaters are connected to the spreader for thermal uniformity. Based on the above design, a low power consumption carbon dioxide gas sensor was fabricated using a CMOS compatible MEMS process. Bridge type micro-heater based on Si substrate was fabricated by surface micromachining technique. Micro gas sensor showed a value of about 50.5mV/decade for air based carbon dioxide gas with 59mW power consumption.