RESUMEN
A micro-electric-NO(x)-converter based on volume treatment is proposed for the evaluation of NO(x) concentrations in air. It can electrically convert NO(x) mixture from variable mixing rates into a fixed-mixing rate of 25% NO(2) and 75% NO using the corona discharge process with stable conversion efficiency and high throughput (space velocity = 6.3 x 10(4) h(-1)). The micro-electric-NO(x)-converter is based on a volume process. Applying high voltage to the electrodes of the micro-electric-NO(x)-converter generates a corona discharge. This discharge creates high-energy electrons, which collide with gas molecules. After these collisions, NO and O(2) are broken into single atoms, and they are re-combined as a balanced form, NO(2) in this case. The fabricated micro-electric-NO(x)-converter converted NO into NO(2) at conversion efficiency of 25.63%, when 5.5 kV (the applied corona power = 0.196 W) was applied to the micro-electric-NO(x)-converter.
RESUMEN
This paper demonstrates the fabrication and performance of a micro-thermoelectric gas sensor for an effective and inexpensive gas analysis system. The proposed micro-thermoelectric gas sensor was fabricated by using a surface micromachining technique. The sensing mechanism, consisting of thermoelectric material and a novel metal catalyst, was fabricated on the highly thermally resistive layer for reduced heat transfer to the substrate allowing for a simple fabrication process. The micro-thermoelectric gas sensor detects target gas species by measuring the reaction heat of the catalytic reaction between the target gas and a novel metal catalyst using Cu-Bi thermopiles. The catalytic reaction occurs only on the hot junction of the sensing thermopile where the metal catalyst is deposited. In order to reduce the external thermal noise, a difference between the output voltage of the sensing and the reference thermopiles was measured by using a differential amplifier. The response of the fabricated sensor was linear to temperature difference. The fabricated sensor can be used to detect various concentrations of hydrogen and atomic oxygen, where the output voltage linearly increased with the gas concentration.