No description available.

Gas detection is vital in different fields including environmental applications, clinical analysis, and homeland security. To perform these tasks the sensors need to be stable, sensitive, selective, operating at room temperature, rapidly responding, and easy to regenerate. On the other hand, most chemical sensors often suffer from a lack of selectivity, i.e., reacting more or less similarly to a collection of substances. As a result, these sensors may lead to false alerts. Even worse, the molecules to be detected could be masked by some interfering compounds which may result in failure to detect the targets. The goal of this research is to develop a portable gas-sensing device that integrates a zeolite/dye unit with an optoelectronic detector. At nano-scale the sensor is expected to be more accurate, more sensitive, and can better differentiate and detect one chemical component in a mixture of different gases. This could be achieved by incorporating fluorescent dyes into the zeolites' cavities, measuring gas absorption, desorption and photo-chromic interaction of dye and gases, interfacing the zeolite/dye sensor arrays with light source and electronic detectors and fully integrating the sensor arrays into a portable unit. This research addresses many of the above-sated threads. The highly fluorescent organic dye, nile red, was successfully included in the supercages of different zeolites Y (ammonium Y, hydrogen Y, and sodium Y) via chemical reaction. The research also developed an effective method to clean the synthesized inclusions, which is a combination of ultrasound and centrifuge. The cleaned inclusions were baked to remove any gases and/or moisture trapped inside the zeolites' structure. The spectra of the baked inclusions were used as references. The cleaned inclusions were optically characterized in terms of light absorption and fluorescence emission. When exposed to acetone, ethanol, methanol, and de-ionized water, the fluorescence emission spectra of zeolite-sodium-Y/nile-red inclusion showed a similar spectral shift compared to the reference spectrum. On the other hand, the fluorescence emission spectra of zeolite-hydrogen-Y/nile-red inclusion and zeolite-ammonium-Y/nile-red inclusion showed different spectral shifts compared to the reference spectra. This shows the successful proof of encapsulating the nile red dye in zeolites Y's cages, cleaning the zeolite/nile-red combinations, and measuring the desorption and fluorescence emission of the combinations. The optical characteristics of the nile red adsorbing to the external surface of the zeolites Y were studied as well. The research also included the design of the optical system to excite the sensing elements (zeolite/nile-red inclusions), and to collect the fluorescence response, the design and simulation of electronic circuits to condition and process electrical signal, and overall design of an integrated gas detector onto a pressed ceramic optical bench. / Electrical and Computer Engineering

Gas Sensing Has Become a Very Important and Attractive Technique Because of Its Various Applications, Such as in the Increasingly Concerning Case of Environmental Issues, Automobile Emission Detection, Natural Gas Leakage Detection, Etc. It Also Has Significant Applications in Industries, Such as Safety and Health Monitoring in Underground Mines. Among Those Sensing Areas, Fiber-optic Sensors Have Drawn Considerable Attention Because of Its Small Size, Light Weight, High Sensitivity, and Remote Sensing Capability. However, Current Fiber-optic Gas Sensing Techniques Have Several Limitations on Their Potential for Multiplexed or Distributed Sensing Due to Difficulties Such as High Complexity or Large Loss. To Accomplish the Goal for Multiplexed Gas Sensing, an Off-centered Core Fiber Design Is Investigated. The Eccentric Core Can Reduce Attenuation, Keep Mechanical Strength, and Lower Fabrication Cost. To Verify the Feasibility of the Design, Fiber Field Distribution Is First Studied in Simulation, Which Will Be Discussed in Detail in Chapter 2. Then Two Fiber Samples with a Length of 10 Cm and 40 Cm Are Prepared and Placed in a Custom Methane Sensing System for Gas Absorption Testing, Which Is Detailed in Chapter 3. From Etching Analysis, Localized Surface Defects Are Found as the Main Reason for Power Loss. Performance Such as Detection Resolution and Sensitivity Are Investigated. In Chapter 4, Theoretical Evaluations Have Been Conducted for Multiplexed Sensors Performances Using the Off-centered Core Fiber to Study the Impact Fiber Parameters on Sensing System Design. The Conclusion and Summary Are Presented in Chapter 5. / Master of Science / Gas Sensing Has Become a Very Important and Attractive Technique Because of Its Various Applications, Such as in the Increasingly Concerning Case of Environmental Issues, Automobile Emission Detection, Natural Gas Leakage Detection, Etc. It Also Has Significant Applications in Industries, Such as Safety and Health Monitoring in Underground Mines. Among Those Sensing Areas, Fiber-optic Sensors Have Drawn Considerable Attention Because of Its Small Size, Light Weight, High Sensitivity, and Remote Sensing Capability. However, Current Fiber-optic Gas Sensing Techniques Have Several Limitations on Their Potential for Long Distance Distributed Sensing Due to Difficulties Such as High Fabrication Complexity. In This Work, a Fiber-optic Gas Sensor with Special Structure Was Designed. The Sensor Can Reduce Attenuation, Keep Mechanical Strength, and Lower Fabrication Cost. To Verify the Feasibility of the Design, Theory Analysis and Simulation Were Conducted, Which Will Be Discussed in Detail in Chapter 2. Then Two Samples with a Length of 10 Cm and 40 Cm Were Prepared and Placed in a Custom Methane Sensing System for Testing. And Their Performance Such as Sensitivity Is Investigated. In Chapter 4, Theoretical Evaluations Have Been Conducted for Multiplexed Sensors Performances Evaluation to Study the Impact Fiber Parameters on Sensing System Design. The Conclusion and Summary Are Presented in Chapter 5.

The widespread use of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking and as fuel for automobile vehicles requires fast and selective detection of LPG to precisely measure the leakage of gas for preventing the occurrence of accidental explosions. The adoption of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) technology for fabricating the gas sensor provides other potential advantages for sensing applications, which includes low power consumption, low fabrication cost, high quality, small size and reliability. MEMS based gas sensor requires a sensitive layer of oxide material like ZnO, SnO2, TiO2, Fe2O3, etc. The tin oxide material used in the present work changes its electrical properties, as it interacts with the reducing gas like LPG. The sensor material becomes active only at high temperature such as 400ºC, thereby realizing the need of a micro heater to reach the desired temperature. To control the temperature of micro heater and to determine the change in electrical properties of the sensor due to its interaction with LPG an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) forms an essential constituent of the MEMS based gas sensor. In the present work, an attempt has been made to improve the sensitivity of LPG gas sensor and it is correlated with other properties by different characterization techniques. The work also includes the design as well as testing of ASIC for gas sensor system. Process parameters particularly deposition time and substrate temperature have a profound influence on the microstructure of the tin oxide film, which in turn affects the gas sensing properties. To study the effects of these parameters, RF magnetron sputtering system is used for depositing tin oxide films onto the silicon substrate, which is compatible with CMOS technology. The effects of structural properties, optical properties and the porosity of the films are also studied and correlated with the gas sensing properties. In this direction the deposited films are characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to determine the structure orientation. The morphology of the sensor films are analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) while the refractive index, thickness and porosity of the films are determined using ellipsometry studies. The thickness of the deposited films is also confirmed by the surface profilometer. The change in composition of the deposited film along its depth is determined using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (SIMS). Maximum sensitivity 5.5 is obtained for 470 nm thick films, which corresponds to a grain size of 38nm at the operating temperature of 4000C. Following these studies, an ASIC has been designed using Tanner EDA Tools on AMIS 0.7 µm CMOS process, fabricated through Euro practice’s ASIC prototyping service, Belgium and tested successfully after fabrication. The temperature control module of ASIC has been designed using relaxation oscillator technique to control the temperature of the in house developed heater. The resistance to period conversion technique is explored for the design of the sensor read out module of ASIC. The heater is integrated successfully with the sensor film, ASIC and microcontroller based LCD module. The test results show good agreement with the simulation results.

With the proliferation of industries world-wide, there is a growing need and interest in sensing and monitoring environmental pollutants and monitoring the concentration of chemicals/gases in industrial process control. There is also an increasing demand for chemical sensors in other applications such as home security, breath analysis and food processing. Design and development of metal-oxide based gas sensor system is reported in this thesis. The system consists of three components viz. micro heater(which aids inheating the sensor film to required temperatures), CMOS ASIC (the sensor interface circuit) and the thin film transducer(a semiconducting metal oxide thin film whose resistance changes with the concentration of the target gas). Microheaters were realized through PolyMUMPs process. Thermal characterization of surface-micromachined microheaters is carried out from their dynamic response to electrothermal excitations. An electrical equivalent circuit model is developed for the thermo-mechanical system. The mechanical parameters are extracted from the frequency response obtained using a Laser Doppler Vibrometer. The resonant frequencies of the microheaters are measured and compared with FEM simulations. The thermal time constants are obtained from the electrical equivalent model by fitting the model response to the measured frequency response. Microheaters with an active area of140m × 140m have been realized on two different layers(poly-1 andpoly-2) with two different air-gaps (2m and 2.75m). The effective time constants, combining thermal and mechanical responses, are intherangeof0.13msto0.22msforheatersonpoly-1,and1.9s to0.15ms for microheaters on poly-2 layer. The thermal time constants of the best microheaters are in the range of a few s, thus making them suitable for sensor applications that need faster thermal response. The mechanical deformation of the microheaters subjected to an electrothermal excitation, due to thermal stress, is also analyzed using lensless in-line digital holographic microscopy (DHM). The numerically reconstructed holographic images of the micro-heaters clearly indicate the regions under high stress. Double exposure method has been used to obtain the quantitative measurements of the deformations, from the phase analysis of the hologram fringes. The measured deformations correlate well with the theoretical values predicted by a thermo-mechanical analytical model. The results show that lensless in-line DHM with Fourier analysis is an effective method for evaluating the thermo-mechanical characteristics of MEMS components. A sensor interface circuit comprising a resistance-to-time period converter as the front-end circuit and a proportional temperature controller to control the microheater temperature is designed and realized in 130nm UMC CMOS technology. The impact of biasing the transistors in subthreshold versus saturation conditions on analog circuit performance is systematically analyzed. A cascode current mirror, designed in 130nm CMOS technology, is biased in subthreshold and saturation regions and its performance has been analyzed through rigorous analytical modeling. The analytical results have been validated with SPICE simulations. It is demonstrated that the subthreshold operation provides better performance in terms of linearity, power, area, output impedance and tolerance to temperature variation, making it a preferable option for applications such as signal conditioning circuitry for environmental sensors. On the other hand, biasing the circuit in saturation is preferable for applications like transceivers and data converters where high bandwidth, SNR and low sensitivity to process variations are the key requirements. Based on this analysis, a sensor interface circuit has been prototyped for resistance measurement on 130nm CMOS technology, using subthreshold cascode current mirrors as the key building blocks. This current mirror results in 14X lower power compared to above-threshold operation. The interface circuit spans 5 orders of magnitude of resistance, and consumes an ultra low power of 326W. A proportional temperature controller with an integrated on-chip power MOSFET is also realized on the same chip for heating and temperature control of microheaters. The microheater is reused as temperature sensor. The entire circuit works with 1.2V supply, except the power MOSFET and the heater driver circuit, which operate with 3.3V supply. ZnO, a semiconducting metal-oxide, is used as the sensing material. Thin films of ZnO are spin-coated over insulating substrates using sol-gel processing technique. Gold pads deposited over the sensing film act as electrodes. The sensor film is characterized at different temperatures for its sensitivity to ethanol. A peak response of 14% change in resistance is observed for 5ppm ethanol, at a working temperature of 275◦C.

No description available.

This thesis describes development of low cost indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring system for research. It describes data collection of various parameters concentration present in indoor air and sends data back to host PC for further processing. Thesis gives detailed information about hardware and software implementation of IAQ monitoring system. Also discussed are building wireless ZigBee network, creating user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) and analysis of obtained results in comparison with professional benchmark system to check system reliability. Throughputs obtained are efficient enough to use system as a reliable IAQ monitor.

Neste trabalho, foram desenvolvidos filmes finos de composição SrTi1-xFexO3 (0,00≤ x ≤0,150) nanoestruturados visando sua aplicação como sensor de gás ozônio. Os filmes finos foram depositados através da técnica de deposição por feixe de elétrons (EBD) cujo alvo utilizado foram pastilhas obtidas a partir do pó cristalino SrTi1-xFexO3 (0,00≤ x ≤0,150) sintetizadas através do método dos precursores poliméricos. Foi observado a partir das analises termogravimétrica e térmica diferencial que a incorporação de ferro no sistema diminui a temperatura de queima do pó precursor, sugerindo que o ferro atua como catalisador na cadeia polimérica. Os filmes depositados por DFE apresentam-se no estado amorfo sendo necessário um tratamento térmico ex-situ para que a fase cristalina desejada seja obtida. Todos os filmes apresentaram uma boa aderência aos diferentes tipos de substratos utilizados. Após o processo de cristalização, os filmes depositados sobre diferentes substratos foram caracterizados através das técnicas de difração de raios-X, espectroscopia UV-Vis e microscopia de força atômica (MFA). Foi observado que um aumento na temperatura de tratamento térmico dos filmes leva a um aumento no grau de cristalização e a uma diminuição no valor da energia de gap, calculada a partir dos espectros UV-VIS. A analise por MFA mostrou que a mudança do tipo de substrato utilizado não influencia as propriedades estruturais e microestruturais dos filmes. Através da realização de medidas de resistência elétrica, observou-se que os filmes cristalinos submetidos a um tratamento térmico ex-situ a 500oC por 4 horas apresentaram uma boa sensibilidade ao gás ozônio sendo possível detectar a presença de até 75 ppb de ozônio. / In this study, nanostructured thin films of SrTi1-xFexO3 (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.150) compositions were prepared looking their application as ozone gas sensor. The thin films were deposited using the technique of electron beam deposition (EBD) whose targets were obtained from polycrystalline SrTi1-xFexO3 (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.150) powders synthesized by the polymeric precursor method. It was observed from the thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis that the incorporation of iron in the system decreases the calcination temperature of the precursor powders, suggesting that the iron acts as a catalyst in the polymer chain. The as obtained films deposited by EBD present an amorphous state being necessary a ex-situ heat treatment to obtain the desired crystalline phase. All films showed good adhesion to different substrates. After the crystallization process, the films deposited on different substrates were characterized through X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) trechniques. It was observed that an increase in the annealing temperature of the film results in an increase in the degree of crystallization and a decrease in the value of band gap energy, which was calculated from the UV-VIS spectra. The AFM analysis showed that changing the type of substrate does not influence the structural properties and microstructure of the films. By carrying out measurements of electrical resistance, it was observed that the crystalline films subjected to a ex-situ heat treatment at 500oC for 4 hours showed a good sensitivity to the ozone gas being possible to detect the presence of up to 75 ppb ozone.

The use of semiconductor materials applied in gas sensing devices is currently one of the most researched topics in air quality control and environmental protection. The research is focused on the production of new sensing materials with improved detection limits, selectivity, working temperatures and response times of the known semiconductor materials. Although theoretical models show the great importance of morphology on gas detection, a direct relation between structure size/morphology and the gas sensing properties has not been experimentally established. In this work, Radio Frequency-sputtering method is used to deposit and produce zinc oxide thin films from ceramic and metallic targets, in which the latter are submitted to thermal oxidation to obtaining ZnO porous films. The samples are deposited on platinum interdigitated electrodes and the electrical behavior is analyzed when exposed to ozone. The effects of feature size and film porosity are studied regarding the enhancement of sensor performance. The results show sensors with small features and low porosity present low ozone sensitivity and fast response; while greater features in highly porous films exhibit low sensitivity and slower responses. The optimum sensing performance is found to be somewhere between when the apparent surface area available for adsorption is maximized and the best ozone response is registered. On the other hand, the electrical behavior of doped films when exposed to ozone demonstrates cobalt presence plays a fundamental role. By inserting cobalt, we could improve the sensor response by 62% under the same conditions. However, the increase of doping concentration modify the zinc oxide conductivity to p-type and drastically decrease the sensor response due to the possible formation of cobalt oxide segregates. Our results propose RF sputtering deposition as a versatile technique in the production of semiconductor gas sensors, once high porosity and, therefore, sensitivity can be controlled through the deposition of metals, and dopants, followed by thermal oxidation. / O uso de materiais semicondutores aplicados como dispositivos sensores é atualmente um dos tópicos mais pesquisados na área de controle da qualidade do ar e proteção ambiental. As pesquisas são focadas na produção de novos materiais sensores com limites de detecção, seletividade, temperaturas de trabalho e tempos de resposta, melhores que as apresentadas pelos materiais já conhecidos. Embora os modelos teóricos mostrem a grande importância da morfologia na detecção de gases, uma relação direta entre a estrutura, tamanho/morfologia e as propriedades sensoras não tem sido experimentalmente estabelecida na literatura. Neste trabalho, sputtering de rádio frequência é utilizado para depositar e produzir filmes finos de oxido de zinco a partir de alvos cerâmicos e metálicos, em que o último é submetido à oxidação térmica para obter filmes porosos de ZnO. As amostras são depositadas em interdigitados de platina e foi estudado o seu comportamento elétrico quando é exposto a ozônio. Os efeitos de tamanhos de estrutura e porosidade dos filmes são estudados em relação à melhoria da resposta sensora. Os resultados obtidos mostram que os sensores com tamanhos de estrutura menores e baixa porosidade apresentam baixa sensibilidade e rápidas respostas; no entanto, as estruturas maiores em filmes altamente porosos exibem baixas sensibilidades e maiores tempos de resposta. O melhor desempenho sensor encontra-se em um ponto médio em que a aparente área superficial para adsorção é maximizada e é registrada a melhor reposta ao ozônio. Por outro lado, o comportamento elétrico dos filmes dopados demonstrou que a presença de cobalto desempenha um papel fundamental. Com a inserção de cobalto, a resposta sensora foi melhorada em 62% sob as mesmas condições de medida. Porém, o aumento das concentrações de cobalto modificou a condutividade do oxido de zinco para comportamentos tipo-p e diminuiu drasticamente a resposta do sensor, devido a possível segregação de óxido de cobalto. Os nossos resultados propõem o método de deposição RF-Sputtering como uma técnica versátil na produção de sensores semicondutores para gases, uma vez que a porosidade e assim a sensibilidade pode ser controlada por meio da deposição de metais e dopantes seguido por oxidação térmica.

[pt] Apresenta-se neste trabalho dados relativos à incorporação de nitrogênio em nanotubos de carbono de múltiplas paredes. As amostras foram produzidas exclusivamente pelo processo de spray-pirólise usando ferroceno como catalisador. Como fonte de carbono foi usado tolueno juntamente com duas fontes de nitrogênio : acetonitrila e propionitrila. O parâmetro principal investigado é a fração proporcional dos precursores mas o papel da temperatura também é investigado. A caracterização das amostras inclui espectroscopia Raman, microscopia eletrônica de varredura e transmissão, e analise XPS para avaliar a proporção e concentração química nos produtos. Como complemento alguns testes preliminares foram realizados usando nanotubos de carbono como sensores de gás. Análise para vapores de gasolina e etanol são mostrados. Gases como por exemplo amônia foram também testados sob condições de pressão reduzida. / [en] In this work we report results concerning the nitrogen incorporation into multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Samples were grown by spray-pyrolysis and use ferrocene as catalist. As carbon source, toluene is used along two nitrogen precursors : acetonitrile and propionitrile. The main parameter investigated was the proportional fraction of precursors but the temperature role was also investigated. Characterization of the samples includes Raman spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and for evaluate proportional atomic and chemical concentrations in the tubes: XPS analysis. Few preliminary tests were performed using carbon nanotubes as gas sensors. Vapour of gasoline and ethanol data are sampled. Gases were tested also under reduced pressure conditions.