Investigation on optimizing the performance of conductance-based CNTs chemical sensors

Abstract

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is a very essential parameter in determining a sensor's performance and ultimate resolution limit. For conductance-based CNTs chemical sensors, how to increase the response and suppress the noise is a critical issue in optimizing the sensor performance. In this paper, we discuss our experiments performed on conductance-based CNTs sensors, which were fabricated by DEP manipulation, to determine their response while using various activating current (e.g., 50nA–250µA), as well as under different ambient temperatures. The I-V characteristics, Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR), and sensor response were discussed in detail. Also, we studied the relationship between SNR and activating current using different parameters, such as ambient temperature, various types of CNTs, as well as different CNTs sensor substrates.