In this paper, we introduce a micro-ring resonator-based highly sensitive carbon dioxide sensor. For this purpose, a valley is created in the core of the ring and PbSe quantum dots (QDs) are deposited in the valley and the sensor is exposed to CO2 gas. In this way, the refractive index of the PbSe QDs increases with an increase in the concentration of gas flow, and then the resonance frequency of the ring resonator shifts. The designed sensor operates almost linearly over a wide range of concentrations for CO2 gas and shows a high resonance shift at different concentrations of CO2 gas. The detection limit for the designed sensor is 0.001% of CO2 gas which is more sensitive than previously reported sensors based on microring resonators. The frequency shifts are investigated by changing the width of the valley. The minimum width of the valley was determined for the evanescent field in which only the outer core of the ring affects the resonant frequency. Also, the modal analysis of the designed ring resonator waveguide is investigated to determine the minimum core width.