Design and analysis of alcohol gas sensors using nano particles for micro heaters

Abstract

This research describes simulation of MEMS-based Alcohol Gas Sensor study of nanoparticles coated with various parameters such as power consumption, temperature uniformity, change in resistance, sensitivity and selectivity. This is done by calculating the resistance changes as gas is spread over the sensing layer. This instant response in gas detection helps in various applications such as vehicle breath analyser, breath analyzer, food quality control, etc. The gas sensor uses a micro-hotplate structure made of poly silicone mesh. The sensor holds a very thin conductive titanium film which detects the existence of vapors of ethyl alcohol on it. The temperature produced by the hot-plate influences different factors, such as the film's conductance and the amount of a particular gas adsorbed thereon. When the sensor film is brought to the right boiling point temperature, the residual vapor particles evaporate. We configure the supply voltage (around 3 volts) and evaluate the microheater's uniform temperature profile (619.29 K) along with sensitivity and selectivity for efficient sensing of alcohol gas. For the analysis of gas sensing, we have to equate the sensitivity of ZnO, TiO2 and SnO thin film coating. The concept was implemented using heating joules, thermal expansion and FEM simulation with electric current.