Electronic Nose Based on a Multi-Thin Film Transistor Sensor Array Structure for Detecting Odorants with High Selectivity

Electrical noses that mimic the human olfactory system have been developed to detect odors or flavors. Unfortunately, little research on sensing reactions to various odors like a human nose can be found in the literature. Herein, an electronic nose is proposed using a multi-thin film transistor (TFT) sensor array with various polymer selectors and multi-output signal processing to detect various odorants with high selectivity. Through the combination of multi-output produced by eight polymer variables based on indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFTs, a specific radar pattern and its selectivity are generated for the eight different odor substances. Eight multi-output signal processing reduced the correlation coefficient of similarity from 77.9% to 45% relative to the case of four multi-output processing. Because the polymers have different functional groups, polymers showed specific reactions to various odorants, like the human's system, and multi-output analysis could distinguish various odors, even if polymers did not show single selectivity to a specific odor. And the sensitivity improved when compared to two-terminal structures by using TFTs based on IGZO. The advantage is that it can classify multiple odors with good selectivity and sensitivity. This sensor and signal processing concept can be applied to E-nose systems capable of odor monitoring.