MEMS Based Optical Hydrogen Sensors

FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MEMS BASED OPTICAL HYDROGEN SENSORS (2012) HWANGIL HWANG

SAKTHIVISHNU.R

Need for sensor

Energy crisis - limited resources of fossil fuels. Hydrogen - most attractive energy resources for its high efficiency, renewability. Fact is environmentally friendly.

Hydrogen - fuel for internal-combustion engines and fuel cells.

Ubiquitous in automobiles and homes - cleaner emissions industrial combustion engines.

Need for sensor - safety

General hydrogen sensors like catalytic, electrochemical and

semiconductor sensors use electrical leads.

Which may induce sparks and provide a cause for ignition in hazardous atmospheres. Optical type hydrogen sensors based on fiber optics allow working in an explosive environment too.

Schematic diagram of MEMS based sensors

Transparent 3c-sic membrane Sensing layer

Photovoltaic effect Detecting layer

Sensing layer
Gasochromic materials of Pd

2 m 3C-SiC thin film, sensing part

oxide wafer

Gasochromic devices
Gasochromic devices, which consists of an electrochromic layer and a thin catalyst coating. Can reversibly react with hydrogen & exhibiting significant changes in their optical properties. Transition metal oxide WO3 are well known electrochromic materials.

Pure palladium has high selectively and very highly permeable

to hydrogen.

 An alpha-beta phase transition which occurs at temperatures below 310C makes the metal dimensionally unstable and liable to severe distortion and failure. Current interest in gasochromic devices arises a interest on the

application over the optical based sensor.

Detection layer Photovoltaic effect

N-type 3C-SiC

P-type Si

 Sensing part 3C SiC 3C-SiC Schottky barrier diode - atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition technique. The barrier height, ideality factor and series resistance IV

characteristic - 0.44 eV, 1.55 and 1.02 104 , respectively.

The transient photocapacitance measurements indicate that the capacitance of the 3C-SiC Schottky diode is very sensitive to illumination.

 Silicon carbide is a semiconductor, which can be doped to ntype by nitrogen or phosphorus and p-type by aluminium, boron, gallium or beryllium

Responses graph

Pd/WO3 shows low photovoltaic compared with Pd only

Responses of the sensors toward different H2 concentrations at room temperature for Pd.

Photovoltaic variations for Pd & Pd/WO3

linear response

Non - linear response

Response and recovery time of Pd and Pd/WO3 with hydrogen concentration

Pd/WO3 was 180, 500 sec

Pd was 300, 900 sec

Variation of response factor (%) with hydrogen concentration.

H2 (%) 2 4 6 8 10 Pd 7.69 12.30 34.61 38.46 42.3 Pd/WO3 1.33 4 5.33 7.33 10

Response factor (%)

Response factor (%)

= ( ) /( )100

Vinitial is the voltage measured in air Vresponse is the voltage at each hydrogen concentrations.

Conclusion
Pd, output signal decreased at high concentration of hydrogen by phase transition.

Pd/WO3 shows linear response signal with hydrogen

concentrations. However, Pd/WO3 structure shows low response factors

compared with pd.

This means the Pd/WO3 has more low penetration ratio compared with Pd

REFERENCE
Raman spectroscopic studies of gasochromic a-WO3 thin

films, DCH Technology inc., Valencia CA 91355, USA

Palladium alloy diffusion cells COMMERCIAL UNITS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ULTRA-PURE HYDROGEN by H. Connor, B.Sc. Platinum development department, Johnson Matthey & co limited. Electrochromism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Silicon carbide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Thank you