Keywords

MEMS, SMO, Temperature Feedback Control, Gas Sensor, Fuzzy Neural Network

Abstract

A systematic investigation has been performed for "Electric Nose", a system that can identify gas samples and detect their concentrations by combining sensor array and data processing technologies. Non-silicon based microfabricatition has been developed for micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) based gas sensors. Novel sensors have been designed, fabricated and tested. Nanocrystalline semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) materials include SnO2, WO3 and In2O3 have been studied for gas sensing applications. Different doping material such as copper, silver, platinum and indium are studied in order to achieve better selectivity for different targeting toxic gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide etc. Fundamental issues like sensitivity, selectivity, stability, temperature influence, humidity influence, thermal characterization, drifting problem etc. of SMO gas sensors have been intensively investigated. A novel approach to improve temperature stability of SMO (including tin oxide) gas sensors by applying a temperature feedback control circuit has been developed. The feedback temperature controller that is compatible with MEMS sensor fabrication has been invented and applied to gas sensor array system. Significant improvement of stability has been achieved compared to SMO gas sensors without temperature compensation under the same ambient conditions. Single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) has been studied to improve SnO2 gas sensing property in terms of sensitivity, response time and recovery time. Three times of better sensitivity has been achieved experimentally. The feasibility of using TSK Fuzzy neural network algorithm for Electric Nose has been exploited during the research. A training process of using TSK Fuzzy neural network with input/output pairs from individual gas sensor cell has been developed. This will make electric nose smart enough to measure gas concentrations in a gas mixture. The model has been proven valid by gas experimental results conducted.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2005

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Chen, Quanfang

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000377

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000377

Language

English

Release Date

May 2005

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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