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surface area of the semiconducting materials. By Upon completion of the milling process, the
reducing the particle size of the semiconducting nanopowder was let to dry in air and then half of
materials down to nanometer scale, a large each powder was sintered at 700 °C for 8 hours.
increase in the spesific surface area can be Analysis of the nanopowders was then performed
obtained [7]. using SEM, EDS, and FTIR. To make a printable
In thick film technology, the sensing layer is metal oxide paste, the nanopowders were mixed
very porous and consists of numerous with a-based terpinol. To obtain a suitable
interconnected metal oxide grains in the form of viscosity, the a-based terpinol was added
single crystals or polycrystalline agglomerates. dropwise to the nanopowders followed by
However, the high porosity enables the ambient constant stirring. Figure 1 shows the steps
gases to access the intergranular connections. As involved in the preparation of the thick film paste
a results, the gas interaction can take place at the based on the metal oxide nanopowders.
surface of individual grains, at the boundaries
between grains, and at the interface between
grains and electrode and substrates.
There are two kinds of reactivity that may take
place at the semiconductor surface with the
presence of gases. The first reactivity is due to MIX WITH a
the presence of oxidising gases such NO2 and O3, MIX WITH BASED
ACETONE TERPINOL
in which case oxygen adsorption at the
semiconductor surface forms negatively charged
oxygen species. As a result, the electrical
conductivity of n-type semiconductor decreases. BALL MILLING
SEM EDS
ANALYSIS
FTIR
02 + e -* 02ads (2) A
III. EXPERIMENTAL
Nanosized SnO2 and In203 powders were Fig 2. Layout of the gas sensor platform on
prepared by mechanicall ball milling process of A1203 substrate
centrifugal-type. The process was done at room
temperature. Initially, each semiconducting metal
oxide powder, with average grain size of 3 - 5 2.2 Fabrication of the gas sensor platform
pm, was mixed with acetone. The amount of The gas sensor platform has been fabricated on
SnO2 powder was 35 g, and that of In203 was 15 an alumina (96% A1203) substrate. The size of
g. The milling process was then performed with
the alumina substrate was 2 x 2 inch with a thick
stainless steel balls with diameter of 12 mm. The
ness of 0.7 mm on which up to 10 sensor
number of balls used was 12, and the speed of
rotation was maintained at 250 rpm. The milling platform can be fitted with dimension as shown
on Figure 2. Each platform consists of an
process was done for 15 hours with 15 minutes
interdigitated AgPt electrode for measuring the
paused after every hour.
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ICSE2006 Proc. 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
sensor resistance and heater track for keeping the The fact that the original SnO2 powders were
sensor at the operating temperature. mixed with acetone before the milling process
Initially, the alumina substrate was has made the resulting nanopowders have a high
mechanically drilled on each pad as a means for carbon content even after drying. The EDS
the sensor interconnection with the electronic spectra in Figure 5 shows that the SnO2
circuitry. The high operating temperature of the nanopowders contain 16.82% of C. After
sensor has restricted the use of solder-based sintering at 700 °C for 8 hours, all the C content
interconnection. An AgPt paste was then screen can be completely removed. This is shown in the
printed, dried, and fired. EDS spectra on Figure 6.
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ICSE2006 Proc. 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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ICSE2006 Proc. 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
is similar to SnO2. As shown in Figure 9, the AgPt thick film heater. Notice that in order to
nanopowders begin to agglomerate. maintain the heater temperature between 100 -
The FTIR spectrum of the In203 particles is 300 °C, the amount of power required is around 3
presented in Figure 10. Like the case of SnO2, - 9 Watts, which is typical for thick film
Fig 11. Temperature versus power characteristics The work presented in this paper is the first
of the AgPt thick film heater step towards the design and fabrication of gas
sensor system for environmental monitoring, in
which the main parts consist of gas sensors and
4.3 Characteristics of the thickfilm heater on-line telemetric system. Therefore many
aspects still need to be done including
One of the requirements for metal oxide based characterisation of these nanomaterials for their
gas sensors is their high operating temperature, responses to polutant gases, and the use of
which is normally between 100 - 300 °C. The MEMs technology in the fabrication of the
temperature of gas sensors influences their sensor platform. The work on this particular
sensitivity, selectivity, and response time. In this aspect is still in progress, and the results will be
research, the choice of using AgPt as the heater published elsewhere.
and electrode materials have been based on the
trade-off between cost and performance. An ideal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
heater and electrode materials would be platinum
and gold, respectively. However, the cost of This work is financially supported by LIPI
platinum and gold pastes for thick film Competitif Project No. 27.04/SK/KPPI/II/2006
technology is almost ten times that of silver. on Development of New Methods in the Design
Unfortunately, silver is known to have an and Fabrication of Gas Sensor System for
electromigration at high temperatures. Therefore Environmental Monitoring.
for many applications, AgPt paste seems to be a
good option. REFERENCES
The heater measurement was done by applying
constant currents (Kenwood Reg. DC Power [1] W. Tsujita, A. Yoshino, H. Ishida, and T.
Moriizumi, "Gas sensor network for air-
Supply PD 18-3 OAD) and simultaneously pollution monitoring", Sensors. Actuators B,
measure the voltage drop and temperature vol. 1 10, pp. 304-311 (2005).
(Lutron Dual Termometer TM 915A) across the [2] N. Yamazoe, "Towards innovations of gas
heater tracks. Figure 11 shows resulting sensor technology", Sensors. Actuators B,
temperature versus power characteristics of the vol. 108, pp. 2-14 (2005).
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