A Frequency-Based Signature Gas Identification

Circuit for SnO2 Gas Sensors

Kwan Ting Ng1,2 , Farid Boussaid1 , and Amine Bermak2 ,
1

School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
2

Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
kashng@ee.uwa.edu.au

AbstractThis paper presents a gas identification circuit for

tin oxide (SnO2 ) gas sensors. The proposed circuit uses 2 gas
sensors with different characteristics to achieve gas identification.
A spike train is generated during operation, with the frequency
of spike occurrence being gas dependent but concentration
invariant. As a result, the spike firing frequency can be used
to achieve gas identification. The calibration of this readout
technique requires only a single exposure to the target gases to
extract the sensor resistances. The low complexity processing is
suitable for on-chip implementation. The functionality of this
circuit has been validated with real data from our in-house
fabricated sensors.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The use of gas sensors to identify dangerous gases for
safety purpose is inevitable. Besides, high efficiency, simple
architecture and low costs gas identification systems are increasingly imminent. Tin oxide (SnO2 ) sensor is one of the
most commonly used gas sensors due to its low fabrication
cost, high sensitivity to a large variety of gases and CMOS
compatibility [1]. This enables sensors and processing circuits
to be integrated onto a single chip. However, there is a major
drawback when using SnO2 as the sensing material for gas
identification. The selectivity of the SnO2 sensors is poor
because they are highly sensitive to a wide range of gases.
Same output signals can be observed even if the sensed gases
are different. This is because the sensor response does not
depend only on the type of the sensed gas, but also depends
on the gas concentration. Therefore, it is crucial for the gas
identification system to be robust against the interference by
the gas concentration.
A common approach for gas identification systems is to
employ an array of different gas sensors to compensate for
the poor selectivity of SnO2 . The gas sensor array is usually
constructed by SnO2 sensors with different additives such as
catalysts and dopants. Classifiers such as principal component
analysis (PCA) are applied on the extracted sensor information [2]. The number of sensors used in the array directly
affects its identification accuracy. The discrimination between
different gases is more observable by using a large number of
sensors. Consequently, most of the existing gas identification
systems employs large sensor arrays [2][3][4]. The downsides

978-1-4244-5309-2/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

of large sensor arrays are the expensive and high complexity

fabrication, which results in low yield.
Another approach to improve the sensor selectivity is to
modify the sensor characteristics by temperature. Since SnO2
sensor response has a large dependence on operating temperature, multiple signals can be extracted from a single
sensor with this approach. An example is to perform gas
sensing with dynamic temperature modulation, which is to
apply a periodically varying voltage to the sensor heater [5].
As a result, thousands of signal responses can be obtained
from a single sensor and can be used for gas identification.
Nonetheless, the gas identification systems using dynamic
temperature modulation is slow and unreliable due to the
slow response of SnO2 . Sampling the sensor resistances at
multiple constant temperatures can also be used to enhance the
selectivity [6]. However, the time for SnO2 to reach thermal
equilibrium is long hence it is not amenable to perform real
time readout. Manufacturers recommend users to heat up a
commercial sensor for at least 2 hours prior to sensing. This
is not suitable for sensors used in gas identification systems
which are always used for dangerous gas monitoring. It is
vital to perform fast identification for safety reasons therefore
temperature modulated sensors are inadequate.
To address the tradeoff between sensor selectivity, identification efficiency and fabrication costs, we propose in this
paper an on-chip gas identification circuit that requires only 2
different SnO2 gas sensors. The circuit generates a spike train
whose frequency is gas dependent but concentration invariant.
The advantage of the proposed approach is that it can perform
real-time gas identification with a small dimension sensor
array.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the
working principle of the proposed gas identification technique.
The VLSI implementation of the circuitry is presented in
Section III. Experimental results are discussed in Section IV,
and finally a conclusion is drawn in Section V.
II. G AS IDENTIFICATION BASED ON FREQUENCY
SIGNATURE

Tin oxide gas sensor is a conductometric gas sensor whose

resistance changes due to adsorption and reaction of reduc-

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ing/oxidizing gas on the sensor surface. The resistance Ri for

sensor i is approximated by [7]
Ri i i

(1)

Where is the sensed gas concentration, i and i are

constants which depend on the type of gas and sensing
material.
The block diagram of the proposed technique is shown in
Fig. 1. It uses 2 different SnO2 gas sensors with individual
readout circuit to convert the sensor information into electrical signals in order to generate a concentration independent
signature for the sensed gas.

III. VLSI I MPLEMENTATION

The two major building blocks for the proposed circuit are
the sensor readout circuits and spike generation circuit. The
schematic of the readout circuit is shown in Fig. 2. The readout
circuits for both sensors are identical, with sensor i being
modeled as variable resistance Ri .

Fig. 2.

Schematic of the readout circuit

To readout the sensor resistances, we firstly convert the

resistances into current then perform a log compression by
diode. If the gain A is large enough, the current passing
through the sensor is given by
Fig. 1.

Block Diagram of the proposed technique

Vref
(3)
Ri
This current is copied and fed into a forward biased diode.
Its forward bias voltage Vxi is given by
Ii =

Prior to sensing, in the calibration phase, the 2 sensors

are exposed once to the target gases at a high concentration.
The sensor resistances are stored in the on-chip memory as
references. The gas concentration of this exposure should be
as high as possible so that the reference signals are large.
During the sensing period, the spike generation circuit returns
a spike train with its period tperiod given by:

tperiod =

ln R1 () ln R1 (H )
1

ln R2 () ln R2 (H )
2

(2)

Where Ri () and Ri (H ) are the resistances for sensor

i during sensing and calibration respectively. As seen from
(2), has been eliminated from the expression, resulting in
the period of the spike train being independent of the gas
concentration. Equivalently, the frequency of the spike train
only depends on the gas and sensor dependent term, 1 and
2 , regardless of its concentration. The frequency of the spike
train is chosen as the signature of the sensed gas and stored
in the counter and memory. Therefore, gases can be identified
simply by reading the frequency of the spike train from the
counter and memory.
One should note that H has also been removed from the
expression of tperiod in (2). In other words, the reference
concentration is not required to be precisely controlled. This
further reduces the complexity of the calibration process.

Vref
(4)
IES Ri
Where VT and IES are the thermal voltage and reverse bias
saturation current of the diode respectively. At the reference
extraction stage, Vxi for both sensors are stored in the on-chip
memory. They are used as input signals at sensing for the spike
generation. The schematic of the the spike generation circuit
is shown in fig. 3.
Vxi = VT ln

Fig. 3.

Schematic of the spike generation circuit

During sensing, Vx1 and Vx2 become the readout voltages

that correspond to the sensor resistances. They are to be

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compared with the reference signals Va1 and Va2 respectively.

The difference between Vx1 and Va1 is amplified by a constant
voltage gain Ao . By using (4), Vout is given by
Vout = Ao VT ln

RSen1 ()
H
= Ao VT 1 ln
RSen1 (H )

(5)

Similarly, The difference between Vx2 and Va2 is amplified

by a constant transconductance gain Gm, resulting an output
current Icomp given by
Icomp = Gm VT ln

RSen2 ()
H
= Gm VT 2 ln
RSen2 (H )

(6)

Initially, Vcomp is connected to ground through the global

reset transistor with a high reset signal GR. To initiate the
identification process, GR is toggled low, disconnecting Vcomp
with ground and leave it as a floating node. Subsequently,
Icomp charges the capacitor up linearly from ground with the
rate given by
Icomp
dVcomp
(7)
=
dt
C
When Vcomp reaches Vout , the output of the comparator
toggles from low to high. After propagating through the
inverter chain, AR becomes high, causing the capacitor to
be discharged to ground. When Vcomp is discharged, the
comparator output returns to low. AR thereafter returns to low
which disconnects Vcomp from ground. The inverter chain is
used to extend the pulse width of AR, ensuring that sufficient
time is available for Vcomp to be fully discharged to ground.
This resetting process iterates until the end of the integration
period. The timing diagram is illustrated in fig. 4.
GR

Vcomp
Vout
AR

tperiod

Fig. 4.

time

Timing diagram

A spike train is observed at the signal AR. The pulse width

of the spike depends on the propagation delay of the inverter
chain, whereas the period of the spike train is given by
tperiod =

Vout C
Ao C 1
=

Icomp
Gm 2

(8)

As seen from (8), the period of the the spike train is

concentration independent. Equivalently, the frequency of the

spike train can be used to identify the gas. A spike driven

counter and memory is attached to the output of the readout
circuitry in order to record the spike firing frequency [8]. As
the firing frequency is linearly proportional to the spike count
when the integration period is fixed, the spike count stored in
the counter and memory can be used to represent the sensed
gas.
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
The circuit was designed using AMIS 0.35m standard
CMOS technology and the sensors were fabricated in an inhouse fabrication facility. The microphotograph of the sensors
is shown in Fig. 5. The size of a sensor is approximately
190m 190m. Platinum (Pt) is chosen as the catalyst for
both sensors whereas boron (B) and phosphorus (P) are used
as dopants. As a result, the drift behavior of the 2 sensors
are similar. This enhances the robustness of the proposed
gas identification circuit because the effect of drift has been
reduced by the ratiometric sensing.

Fig. 5.

Microphotograph of sensors

The sensors were tested with gases such as propane, ethanol,

carbon monoxide and hydrogen between concentration of
40ppm and 200ppm. The test was run in a laboratory chamber
for 108 cycles in total by exposing sensors to gas and dry air
alternatively. Dry air exposure was used to ensure that the
sensor surface has been cleaned before the next measurement.
The sensor steady state resistances were extracted from the
sensors and used to verify the functionality of the proposed
circuit. Sensor resistances sampled at 200ppm for all gases are
assigned as the reference resistances Ri (H ) because it is the
highest available concentration throughout the test.
An example of the results is plotted in Fig. 6. 30s were
chosen as the integration period in this example to demonstrate
the spikes clearly. A longer integration period is used in the
actual sensing to obtain a larger signal and to increase the
diversity between different gas signatures. 4 inverters with
minimum sizes are used in the inverter chain. The pulsewidth of the spike is 6ns, which is sufficient enough to fully
discharge Vcomp since a small capacitance of 1pF was chosen.
The spike train is fed into the spike driven counter and
memory. The spike counts for different gases are plotted in
Fig. 7 with 200s as the integration period. The results show
clearly that each gas is represented by a spike count, which
is independent on the gas concentration. The mean and the
standard error of mean (SEM) are summarized in table I.

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TABLE I
S UMMARY OF THE SPIKE COUNTS FOR DIFFERENT GASES

Mean
SEM

Fig. 6. Demonstration result of the readout circuit. Integration time is 30s

Propane
91
0.5

CO
106
0.7

Ethanol
78
0.9

Hydrogen
64
2.5

As seen from fig. 8, the spike counts for hydrogen is

relatively constant at low concentration. However, significant
drifts are observed at high concentrations. This is because the
sensor resistances at high concentrations are very close to the
resistances at the reference concentration H (200ppm). By
(5) and (6), the output signals Vout and Icomp are small after
subtraction. The spike count is proportional to the ratio between Vout and Icomp , hence misleading results are obtained.
One way to resolve this is to extract the reference resistance
Ri (H ) at a higher concentration. The output signals will be
significantly enhanced and further improve the identification
accuracy.
V. C ONCLUSION
A gas identification technique with simple calibration utilizing only 2 SnO2 gas sensors is presented in this paper. The
proposed scheme extracts reference resistances by exposing
the sensors once to high concentration gases prior to sensing.
During operation, the sensor resistances are compared with
the references and converted into a spike train that has a
unique firing frequency for each monitored gas regardless of
its concentration. The number of spikes within the integration
period is stored in an on-chip memory and to be used as the
signature of the sensed gas. The functionality of the circuitry
has been validated using data obtained from an in-house
fabricated sensors and has shown satisfactory result.

Fig. 7.

R EFERENCES

Counts of gases at different concentrations

The SEM for hydrogen is relatively high as shown in table I.

It is because the spike count for the sample at concentration of
180ppm is 81, which is much higher than all other hydrogen
samples. The measurement of hydrogen was repeated 3 times.
The results are shown in fig. 8.

Fig. 8.

Results for identifying H2 in 3 repeated tests

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