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Gas Sensor profiling

Rakesh M, Arul Prabahar A
This paper is organised as follows: Section 2 and 3 deals with the characterization of sensor response to gas followed by the analysis of the data acquired from the response study. It is also important to determine the sensor time response means the time taken by a sensor to stabilize with the surrounding gas concentration. Section 4 and 5 brief about the observations, on switching the heater coil and efficacy of such a method in reducing the power consumption. Section 6 discusses the impact of ambient temperature on sensor performance and section 7 concludes the paper with future work to be carried out. II. CALIBRATION PROCESS Even though process explained in here is for the Parallax MQ-2 sensor, the process is exactly the same for most of the resistive type sensors. For some sensors the manufacturer provides data on what value of load resistance should be applied for a particular alarm point, so that the resolution could be sufficient around the alarm point. For example Figaro sensor (TGS2611) provides a list of load resistance values corresponding to sensor serial no. For calibration process, the first step is to determine the load resistance. For this, a standard voltage divider combination is constructed between load resistance and gas sensors resistive element. The initial value of load resistance is determined by fixing the gas free threshold level as 2.5V and measuring the sense resistance across the element. Also a potentiometer could be used as the load and used for tuning the requisite gas free threshold level. For simplicity purpose once determined the requisite load resistance value for the gas, free threshold level of 2.5V use a fixed resistance (dummy load) to replace the potentiometer. For all above operations heater coil is ON. The setup is as shown in figure 1. The gas sensors sense resistance is connected in series load resistance RL, thus forming a voltage divider circuit. The output voltage is measured across the load resistance

Abstract Gas sensor is used to detect the gas leakage. The electrical properties of the sensor would change with variations in gas concentration. This paper gives a comprehensive view of parameters considered for profiling a resistive type gas sensor. Calibration technique that needs to be adopted in order to determine the apt value of load resistance for proper gas sensor response is illustrated in detail. The importance of heater element in resistive type gas sensors is investigated experimentally. Different temperature compensation techniques are presented. Methods for measuring response time and recovery time are also described. Finally the results and findings are enumerated.
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Key words Gas sensor, Temperature compensation.

I.

Gas

sensor

profiling,

INTRODUCTION

Gas sensor is mainly used as a gas leakage detecting equipment. Dimensions of the sensors are small enough to incorporate them in a portable unit. With the varying concentration of gas, the electrical properties of the sensor would change. For example in resistive type sensor, variation in gas concentration would result in resistance change. In these types of sensors the sensing element needs to work in high temperature. For this, there is a separate heating element on which the sensing element would be placed. The heater coil ensures that the sensing element functions at appropriate temperature conditions. The most important parameters that affect the sensor specifications are temperature, gas concentration levels and humidity [1]. Before setting a proper alarm point for gas leakage, it is important to calibrate the device to nullify the impact of unwanted externalities. Also a procedure needs to be developed if calibration is required to be performed on each system before deploying the system on the field. Most of the power in the sensor system is consumed by the heating element. It drains away power if the device is operated in battery power mode. This would call for batteries of huge capacity which will affect the portability of the device. A simple drive circuit for the sensor was designed with an apt load resistance whose output is measured to determine the alarm point. The voltage applied to the Heating element is through a switch which can be turned ON/OFF using appropriate control pins. This configuration offers the flexibility to switch the voltage applied to the heater coil.

Figure 1: Gas sensor equivalent circuit [1]

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The setup is exposed to different gas (LPG) concentration levels in the gas chamber. The data obtained is used for determining the sense resistance. Once the sense resistance values are obtained in Ohms this data is used for finding the right value of load resistance for maximum range i.e it is for this value of load resistance upon which the gas sensor output voltage span would be maximum. In our lab experiment with the dummy load for a gas concentration level change from 200ppm to 10,000ppm (maximum the sensor could sense) the voltage span was not more than 700mV. This poor sensitivity at high gas concentrations is due to wrong value of load resistance chosen. From the experiment it is possible to derive sense resistance values at different gas concentration levels and use them to calculate the right value of load resistance for which the sensitivity would be high.

The Y axis represents the Log (Rs/Ro) where Rs = sense resistance and Ro = sense resistance at 1000ppm. X axis represents the concentration levels in logarithmic terms. From the Sense resistance vs Gas concentration graph, it was observed that there is a linear relation between the voltage output of the sensor module and log of ppm values of gas concentration as shown in Fig. 4. X axis represents the Vout of sensor module and Y axis represents the log of gas concentration.

Figure 4: Graph between output voltage and Gas concentration

Figure 2: Gas chamber setup

Solver tool in excel is used to determine the value of load resistance for which our sensor module sensitivity would be high. The dummy load value was 6.8K, but after maximizing for the span using solver we derive that if the load resistance is 700Ohms; will deliver maximum span. Now in step two the dummy load (6.8K) is replaced with 700Ohms and re-run the experiment. It is observed that a span of 2.85V for gas concentration changes from 200ppm to 10,000ppm. There is an improvement of more than 300% in span. This improvement is attributed to apt value of load resistance applied. The sense resistance variation with respect to gas concentration is plotted in figure.3.

Since there exists a nonlinear relation between the gas concentration level and voltage output of sensor module the prospect of using simple linear devices to linearize the correlation is bleak. Thus it is proposed to either use interpolation where it is possible to track the relation using a look up table or use curve fitting techniques to derive a definite relation. We have used curve fitting to derive a statistical correlation between the sensor o/p voltage and gas concentration level. The relation derived after fitting a curve is as follows

PPM= 10 (0.7247*Voltage+1.6073)
With r2 = 0.9844 (r = correlation coefficient) which means 98.4 % of variations can be predicted using this equation. If we assume that there are no other factors that affect the sensor response then the above equation could be used to determine the gas concentration level between 200ppm 10000ppm. There are other relations that can be derived with a better r2 value but the above relation holds simplicity and ease of implementation. III. RECOVERY /RESPONSE TIME Response time and recovery time are two parameters which determine the alertness of the sensor module. It is done in two levels. For most of the resistive type gas sensors when the system is switched on the Vout would be very close to supply voltage and slowly it stabilizes to threshold level. It is important to implement wait states before reading the first value of gas concentration level else, microcontroller would interpret high concentration of gas levels in the surroundings. In case of MQ2 sensor, the initial stabilization time/Setup time is about 4 minutes. The second level of response time is

Figure 3: Graph between Gas concentration and sense resistance

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how fast the sensor module responds to change in gas concentration. For determining this response time the sensor module is kept in gas chamber and vacuum is created inside the gas chamber. Later, peak concentration level is infused i.e. 10,000ppm into the chamber and allowed the sensor module to stabilize. It stabilizes within 5s. The recovery time is calculated as, once the infused gas level removed from the gas chamber; sensor would take some time to revert back to its gas free voltage level. The infused gas level flushed out of the chamber and recovery time is determined as 15s. IV. POWER CONSUMPTION REDUCTION IN HEATER Heater coil plays an important role in gas sensing technology. In high temperatures only gas sensing elements are stable. To maintain the high temperature levels, heater coil is used. The heater coil consumes more power. In terms of current, it takes around 160mA. To increase the battery capacity, it is important to reduce the power consumption of heater coil. Switching of the input to the heater coil was done to verify whether this method provides good results. Switching input is produced from a microcontroller as shown in figure.5. The duty cycle of the switching signals is programmed through the microcontroller code. The frequency was fixed to 1 kHz.
5V

compared to the previous cases. The circuit is behaving as when the 100% duty cycle input is applied to the heater coil. Results are shown in table.1. Normally, when the gas sensors are switched on, the output decreases and settles down at a particular value in the absence of gas. But when the switching input is used for heater coil, it is noticed that the output is not stabilizing; it keeps on increasing and approaching the supply voltage level. Another method that could be adopted is to attach a small temperature sensor to the surface of gas sensor. Once the gas sensor attains stable temperature level at the surface microcontroller could switch OFF the heater coil and turn it ON when temperature falls. Duty Cycle (%) 50 75 90 % increase in Output voltage 21 7 2

Table.1. Switching of input to heater coil

The conclusion out of our experiment is switching heater coil will not offer proper functioning of gas sensors. V. SENSOR CALIBRATION WITH HEATER COIL SWITCHED OFF In order to reduce the power consumption sensor calibration was done with heater coil, turned OFF as shown in figure.6. In this scenario the gas free output threshold came down to 13mV with 6.8k load resistance. With variation in gas concentration there was no increase in output so a load resistance of 2MOhms was placed to bring up the voltage threshold level to 2.47V. With increase in gas concentration levels, there were millivolt increase in voltage output for the peak infusion (3mV).This increase cannot be imparted to change in gas concentration, which could also be due to stabilization characteristics. For lower concentration

Heater Coil of Sensor

MCU

Figure 5: Schematic for generating switching input to heater coil

Without connecting the switching input, MQ-2 sensor gives 2.45 V in the absence of gas. When switching signal of 50% duty cycle is given as the input to the heater coil, the output of the gas sensor is not stable. There is 21% increase in the output in a time span of 5 minutes. This trend continues with time and output voltage approaches supply voltage level. When 75% duty cycle switching signal is given as the input to the heater coil, 7% increase in the output is noticed in the time span of 5 minutes. Here the rate of voltage variation has reduced. When the heater coil is switched on, the output voltage comes close to supply voltage and then settles down to its threshold value in gas free air. So frequent turn ON and OFF of heater coil tends to pull the output voltage up and heater coil tends to stabilize the voltage. Interaction of these two opposing forces determines the stability level. When 90% duty cycle is used, 2% increase in the output is noticed in the time span of 5 minutes. The output is more stable as

Figure 6: jumper to switch off the supply to heater coil

levels, there were no response observed.

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Figure 7: Gas sensor characteristics for different heater temperatures

Figure.7. shows the typical temperature dependence of TGS-2611 sensors sense resistance [2]. From the figure, we observe that at room temperature the sense resistance would be high. With variation in ambient temperature there will be huge variation in sense resistance. Thus effect of ambient temperature variations would over ride the gas response of sensor, so it is not desirable to operate the sensor without the heating element. VI. TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION An Ideal sensor should respond only for gas concentration level and should be nonchalant to other environmental parameters like temperature, humidity etc. However, most sensors respond to ambient temperature. MQ-2 is neutral to ambient temperature variation from 20OC to 50OC and responds to temperature beyond this window. TGS2611 has no inbuilt temperature compensation [2]. For TGS2611 we can compensate for temperature variations using a thermistor, which has a matching temperature response alongside TGS2611 or a digital compensation technique would suffice. For MQ-2, digital technique is the most suitable as MQ-2s response temperature variations are acute at below 20OC. For this the sensor needs to be characterized for different temperature range and the corresponding sense resistance variations should be logged. A look up table would help microcontroller to digitally compensate for temperature variations. The same technique is applicable for TGS 2611.As TGS2611 is not internally compensated for temperature variations; it is possible to derive a characteristic curve for the temperature dependence of sense resistance. This equation could be used to compensate for temperature variations. By using thermistor, simple temperature compensation circuit for gas sensors can be made. Thermistor should have an appropriate B value (which represents slope with which resistance changes with temperature) for compensation. Thermistor should be placed at the appropriate arm of the Wein Bridge followed by an instrumentation amplifier if required. A resistor connection in parallel to thermistor would approximately linearize the thermistors temperature response. VII. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK A calibration technique has been developed for calibrating Gas sensors of any make. The authenticity of the technique could be illustrated from the fact that calculations made on load resistance of TGS2611 exactly matches with the manufacturers suggested values. Technique of curve fitting will be used in applications of gas sensors to determine gas concentration level from voltage outputs. For ideal performance of gas sensor the heater element should be allowed to operate as mentioned in product data sheet. Temperature compensation will be done using Look up table technique. Usage of thermistor limits the range and

performance. Temperature compensation based on microcontroller Look up table may be used for better results. Having an ASIC IC which is capable of temperature compensation and signal processing will provide better results. SAW sensors may be used, as they are more power conservative. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was carried out under the project Development of low cost real time monitoring system for detection of harmful gases funded by DIT (Department of Information technology). Authors are grateful to DIT for funding the project. Authors would like to acknowledge and extend their heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Monica Tomar, Asst Professor and Miss. Anjali, Research scholar, DU for their mentoring, guidance and valuable inputs. We are indebted to Dr. George Varkey, Executive Director, Dr. P.C. Jain, Head of School of Electronics, and Mr. Sourish Behera, Project Manager, CDAC-Noida for their encouragement and guidance to present/publish this paper.

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[1] Jose L. Solis, Gary E. Seeton, Yingfeng Li, and Laszlo B. KishS.M, Fluctuation-Enhanced Multiple-Gas Sensing by Commercial Taguchi Sensors, IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 5, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005. Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices, Wiley, New York, 1981. http://www.figarosensor.com/products/2611app.pdf M. Burgmair*, M. Zimmer, I. Eisele , Humidity and temperature compensation in work function gas sensor FETs, Sensors and Actuators, VOL. B, NO. 93, 2003. Weidong Ding, Ryota Hayashi, Junya Suehiro, Guangbin Zhou, Kiminobu Imasaka and Masanori Hara, Calibration Methods of Carbon Nanotube Gas Sensor for Partial Discharge Detection in SF6, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006.

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Rakesh M. received PGDM in Marketing and Operations from IMI, New Delhi and B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). From 2004 to 2008 he worked as Scientist at Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India, where he has a vast experience in Embedded Systems and Avionics. In 2010, he joined CDAC Noida, where he is now Scientist C. His current research interests include Project Management Embedded Systems, Avionics and Sensor Networks. . Arul Prabahar A received his B.E in Electronics and communication from Anna University. He has been with C-DAC, Noida since 2007. His research interest includes Embedded Systems and Wireless sensor networks.