ÜV2 - Modern Gas Sensors Allow Innovation
- Event
- SENSOR+TEST Conferences 2009
2009-05-26 - 2009-05-28
Congress Center Nürnberg - Band
- SENSOR+TEST Conferences 2009
- Chapter
- Proceedings SENSOR 2009, Volume I
- Author(s)
- M. Fleischer - Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, München, Germany
- Pages
- 15 - 20
- DOI
- 10.5162/sensor09/v1/u2
- ISBN
- 978-3-9810993-4-8
- Price
- free
Abstract
Gas sensors became a mature technology now and will be the base for innovations in industrial
fields like building technology, medical, automotive, consumer and industrial technology. Modern
gas sensors are designed in a Microsystems (MEMS) approach to leverage the integration of a
complex functionality into a small-sized and low-cost device. Variations in the design of gas sensing
Microsystems may yield a wide variety of device characteristics that can be exploited to fulfill
heterogeneous application requirements. This can be done by using some variety of operating
principles including ones not used so far. For successful industrialization, of a gas sensing
application, care has to be taken in advance, that the chosen sensing principle has the potential to
fulfill all needs of the intended application.
Examples are discussed. Gas sensors based on the conductance modulation of semi-conducting
metal oxides are characterized by very simple and robust constructions. Limits are in selectivity.
The successful applications for regulation of home gas burners and for Ethanol detection in human
breath for car interlocks are discussed. The usage of the work function readout of gas sensing
materials with FET-devices allows access to a wide variety of sensing materials that distinctly opens
up the variety of gases that can be detected using metal oxide gas sensors. The usage of these gas
sensors for room air quality and medical applications in the human breath are discussed. Optical
gas detection in the NIR using the spectroscopy with Tunable Laser Diodes constitutes the high-end
of gas sensing, yielding selective and high precise gas measurements