TY - JOUR A1 - Berndt, Dominik A1 - Muggli, Josef A1 - Wittwer, Franz A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Heinrich, Stephan A1 - Knittel, Thorsten A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - MEMS-based thermal conductivity sensor for hydrogen gas detection in automotive applications JF - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical N2 - Accurate detection of hydrogen gas in vehicle interiors is very important for the future of a fuel cell car. Since this type of gas is highly volatile and flammable, the measurement methods have to be very reliable and precise due to safety reasons. In this paper a thermal conductivity sensor for hydrogen gas detection is presented, exhibiting a lower detection limit of 2000 ppm hydrogen in laboratory air. The sensor element is realized by micro-fabrication techniques on silicon wafers. The heated filament is exposed by a selective wet etching process creating a micro-hotplate on a thin membrane. In order to minimize power consumption, the sensor is operated in pulsed mode. Hydrogen gas detection was carried out using a synthetic gas testbench. Measurements of hydrogen contents ranging from 0% to 4% with an increment of 0.5% were successfully performed for ambient gas temperatures between -15°C and 84°C. Including humidity, high moisture contents have the greatest influence on thermal conductivity. This was predicted in theoretical investigations and confirmed in experiments. For evaluation, both the change in resistance ΔR as well as the time constant τ were taken as sensor output. For both quantities, the previously established theoretical relationship with thermal conductivity could be confirmed. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2019.111670 VL - 305 IS - April PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Berndt, Dominik A1 - Muggli, Josef A1 - Heckel, Robert A1 - Rahiman, Mohd Fuad A1 - Lindner, Matthias A1 - Heinrich, Stephan A1 - Plöchinger, Heinz A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - A Robust Miniaturized Gas Sensor for H₂ and CO₂ Detection Based on the 3ω Method JF - Sensors N2 - Gas concentration monitoring is essential in industrial or life science areas in order to address safety-relevant or process-related questions. Many of the sensors used in this context are based on the principle of thermal conductivity. The 3ω-method is a very accurate method to determine the thermal properties of materials. It has its origin in the thermal characterization of thin solid films. To date, there have been very few scientific investigations using this method to determine the thermal properties of gases and to apply it to gas measurement technology. In this article, we use two exemplary gases (H2 and CO2) for a systematical investigation of this method in the context of gas analysis. To perform our experiments, we use a robust, reliable sensing element that is already well established in vacuum measurement technology. This helix-shaped thin wire of tungsten exhibits high robustness against chemical and mechanical influences. Our setup features a compact measurement environment, where sensor operation and data acquisition are integrated into a single device. The experimental results show a good agreement with a simplified analytical model and FEM simulations. The sensor exhibits a lower detection limit of 0.62% in the case of CO2, and only 0.062% in case the of H2 at an excitation frequency of 1 Hz. This is one of the lowest values reported in literature for thermal conductivity H2 sensors. KW - 3ω-method KW - CO2 sensor KW - H2 sensor KW - thermal gas sensor Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22020485 N1 - Corresponding author: Dominik J. Berndt VL - 22 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -