Trace levels of hydrogen detection using high surface area nanostructured films is a wide area of research and materials like Zinc Oxide, Tin Oxide etc. have been explored widely for high performance sensor design. In this work we report a highly nano porous palladium film which has been fabricated with a very robust methodology i.e., amenable to microfabrication by using metal co-sputtering and selective etching strategies for sensitive hydrogen detection. The morphology of the highly porous films has been extensively evaluated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and their chemical composition has been evaluated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The average pore diameter of the films was recorded as 40 nm with the pore density of 425 pores/μm2. To evaluate the sensitivity of the fabricated device towards hydrogen, the electrical resistance of the film in the presence of trace concentrations of hydrogen was evaluated in the temperature range 140∼240 °C. The fabricated film shows high sensitivity, good response, excellent stability and good reconditionability. The sensor performance shows highest sensitivity (∼80%) at 180 °C at 600 ppm H2 and a cycle time of 28 sec. Copyright © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.