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Solid State Gas Sensors - Industrial Application pp 79–112Cite as

Theory and Application of Suspended Gate FET Gas Sensors

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Part of the book series: Springer Series on Chemical Sensors and Biosensors ((SSSENSORS,volume 11))

Abstract

Looking at the literature about chemical sensors, it is evident that numerous sensor effects are reported but only a very few sensor concepts remain, which are suitable for industrial applications. This is in contrast to the measurement of physical parameters such as pressure, temperature, acceleration etc. There are several reasons for this discrepancy. First of all, for chemical reactions usually there exist much more cross correlations, which have to be considered in order to determine a correct concentration of chemical species, and secondly, environmental influences cannot be neglected at all. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to fulfill all the requirements, which have been listed in the introduction of this paper.

One interesting and successful gas sensor concept is based on the measurement of surface work function changes due to chemical reactions. Besides a Kelvin probe with a vibrating capacitance, field effect transistors (FET) are well suited to act as transducers for the determination of the corresponding potential variations. This chapter reviews the detection mechanisms, which lead to work function changes and gives an overview of the various transducer concepts. Beginning with the so-called Lundström FET, the historical development all the way to the hybrid mounted “floating gate FET (FG-FET)” is presented. This latest concept is extremely flexible and depending on the chemical-sensitive layer, it can be used for the detection of a large variety of gases.

As an example the development of a hydrogen sensor for future automotive application is presented in more detail. Using platinum as chemical-sensitive layer it is shown that under harsh environmental conditions, it is not sufficient to consider exclusively the reaction of hydrogen with the platinum, but rather, it is necessary to also take into account oxygen, which is always present in air. As a result, a characteristic catalytic ignition point, i.e., the adsorbed hydrogen atoms are consumed by a water-forming reaction, occurs at around 60°C. Only if the complete reaction scheme is considered, it is possible to understand the complex and partially intriguing transducer signals. The development of two-layer systems for the chemical-sensitive layer solves these problems by using a phase transition that comes along with the catalytic ignition and allows a stable sensor operation in the required temperature regime between −40°C and +120°C. Based on the theoretical modeling the temperature-dependent phase transition has been evaluated in order to measure hydrogen concentration up to 4% with high accuracy and to fulfill the automotive requirements.

Finally, in the last section, a new GasFET concept is presented, which extends the operating regime to temperatures as high as 400°C. In the future, this allows the incorporation of a variety of new gas-sensing materials, which need temperatures above 200°C in order to show a decent adsorption–desorption equilibrium.

Altogether, it has been proven that GasFETs are a very promising candidate for future industrial applications.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For Pt(111)

  2. 2.

    Material safety data sheet, Linde AG, Germany

Abbreviations

ΔΦ:

Work function change

ΔΦTarget:

Target work function change

μ :

Effective charge carrier mobility (channel region)

Φ :

Work function

c :

Gas concentration

C′:

Total capacitance of air gap and passivation

C A :

Air gap capacitance

CC-FET:

Capacitive-coupled field effect transistor

C I :

Gate oxide capacitance per unit area

CMOS:

Complementary metal oxide semiconductor

C OX :

Oxide capacitance

C PASS :

Passivation capacitance

D :

Diffusion coefficient/thermal diffusivity

e :

Elementary charge

E d :

Desorption energy

E r :

Activation energy (reaction)

FET:

Field effect transistor

FG-FET:

Floating gate field effect transistor

HSG-FET:

Hybrid suspended gate field effect transistor

HT-FG-FET:

High temperature floating gate FET

I DS :

Source–drain current

IOFF:

OFF state current

ION:

ON state current

k a :

Adsorption parameter

k B :

Boltzmann constant

k d :

Desorption coefficient

k r :

Reaction coefficient

L eff :

Effective channel length

MOS-FET:

Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor

O ads :

Oxygen coverage

O max :

Oxygen saturation coverage

P(T):

Thermal dependent permeability

PMMA:

Polymethylmethacrylat

p x :

Partial pressure

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

SG-FET:

Suspended gate field effect transistor

SOI:

Silicon on insulator

T :

Temperature

TPT-FET:

Temperature-controlled phase transition FET

T R :

Response Time

V C :

Counter voltage

V DS :

Source–drain voltage

V G :

Gate voltage

V T :

Threshold voltage

W eff :

Effective channel width

W Fermi :

Fermi energy level

W vac :

Vacuum energy level

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Mikrosystemtechnik, Institut für Physik, Universität der Bundeswehr München, 85577, Neubiberg, Germany

    C. Senft, P. Iskra & I. Eisele

Authors
  1. C. Senft
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  2. P. Iskra
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  3. I. Eisele
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Correspondence to C. Senft .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Siemens AG Corporate Technology Corporate Research and Technologies CT T DE, München, Germany

    Maximilian Fleischer

  2. Innovative Sensor Technology (IST) AG, Wattwil, Switzerland

    Mirko Lehmann

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Senft, C., Iskra, P., Eisele, I. (2012). Theory and Application of Suspended Gate FET Gas Sensors. In: Fleischer, M., Lehmann, M. (eds) Solid State Gas Sensors - Industrial Application. Springer Series on Chemical Sensors and Biosensors, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/5346_2011_12

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