A CHEAP INTERFACE FOR A GENERAL SENSOR, RESULTING
IN HIGH SELECTIVITY AND LINEAR OUTPUT SIGNALS:
APPLICATION T O A TWO DIMENSIONAL ARRAY OF TIN
OXIDE GAS SENSORS TO DETECT CARBON MONOXIDE A N D
METHANE.
P. Van Geloven, M. Honore, J. Roggen, R. Mertens
IMEC (Inter Universitary Microelectronics Center)
Kapeldreef 75
B-3001 Heverlee Belgium
tel.: 16/281211 fax.:16/229400
Abstract
Tin oxide gas sensors are widely used to detect explosive and
toxic gases in domestic and industrial environments. With re-
spect to these applications, there is a need for sensors having
better performances. Especially if the sensors are submitted to
real life conditions, the response of tin oxide sensors becomes am-
biguous due to the presence of ambient water vapour. Besides
the problem of selectivity, there is the problem of non-linearity of
the electrical conductivity of tin oxide gas sensors with respect
to the gas concentration to be measured. Finally, drift of tin
oxide gas sensors is a problem which has not been overcome yet.
The interface described in this paper results in a spectacular
improvement of the selectivity of an array of tin oxide gas sen-
sors. In contrast with pattern recognition techniques, where it is
difficult to predict concentrations of gases, it becomes possible
not only to predict the gases present in a mixture, but also to
determine their concentrations. The output signals of the inter-
face vary linearly with the gas concentrations to be measured.
The interface also enables to solve the problem of drift. The only
requirement is that the drift of the characteristics of the sensor
as a function of time are known.
The described sensor system, i.e. sensor array plus inter-
face electronics, is cheap, easy to produce, has a low power con-
sumption, can determine the concentration of each gas in a gas
mixture. The complexity of the system, i.e. sensor array plus
interfacing circuits, increases like n" with n the number of gases
in the mixture to be analysed and 1 < a < 2.
The use of the algorithms and the circuits to implement these
algorithms is not limited to the use in combination with tin ox-
ide gas sensors. They can also be used to measure mechanical
quantities, biochemical quantities, etc.
A prototype is built for the detection of carbon monoxide
and methane concentrations in mixtures of these gases and in
the presence of ambient humidity. The first output signal varies
linearly with the carbon monoxide concentration. The second
one varies linearly with the methane concentration.
Introduction
It is well known that it is very difficult to meet industrial selec-
tivity specifications if only one single sensor is being used. This
is true for almost every sensor application. The reason is that
single sensors often are not selective enough to the quantity one
91CH2817-5/91/0000-0322$01.OO 0 1991IEEE 322
I -111; 1 I
wants to measure. A possible solution to this problem might
be the use of arrays of sensors with partially overlapping sen-
sitivities. Algorithms then have to be developed to extract the
desired quantities from the responses of the sensors of the array.
Once these algoritms are obtained, they should be implemented
in harware or software.
Especially in gas sensing systems, the problem of selectivity
is hard to overcome. The reason is that in most applications, a
large number of interfering substances, such as other gases, are
present.
The algorithm and the electronic circuits described here, were
originally developed to improve the selectivity of an array of tin
oxide gas sensors. Their applicability is however not limited to
the use in combination with tin oxide gas sensors.
The interfacing circuits are well suited to decrease the in-
fluence of interfering substances (e.g. ambient humidity in gas
sensing systems) through the use of heterogeneous sensor arrays.
One sensor should be added to the array for each additional in-
terfering substance that one wants to eliminate. Moreover, no
extra effort is required if one wants to measure the interfering
substance quantitatively. Consequently, if one wants to eliminate
the influence of relative humidity on an array of gas sensors, one
also obtains an additional output signal, namely the relative hu-
midity itself. The only requirement for the additional sensor is
that it is sensitive to the interfering substance. It is not neces-
sary that the additional sensor only responds to the interfering
substance, i.e. selectivity with respect to the interfering sub-
stance is not required.
Drift of the charwteristics of sensors is a serious problem.
A prerequisite of the sensors is that their drift with respect to
time is known. If this is not the case, drift problems can only be
solved by means of short term recalibration. As stated before,
the algorithm described here is able to eliminate the influence
of an interfering substance (e.g. the influence of humidity on a
gas sensor system). It can be demonstrated that drift of sensors,
can be considered as an additional interfering substance.
Building an integrated sensor system with tin oxide gas sen-
sors involves the solution of two basic problems. The first prob-
lem is that one has to select a proper array of gas sensors. This
set of sensors should theoretically allow the simultaneous detec-
tion of the gases present in a mixture. This requirement imposes
restrictions on the specifications of the individual sensors as well
as on the number of sensors that is required. In order to detect
r- I' 1 ' 1 1
the concentration of n gases, one needs at least n different sen- Diode converters
sors. Once an adequate set of sensors has been choosen, one has
to solve the following set of non linear equations for P I ,Pz,...P,, Figure 2b is an illustration of a general interface for tin oxide gas
sensors resulting in an output signal that varies linearly with the
61 = fl(Pl,P2,*..P,l)
gas concentration to be measured. The first stage operational
6 2 = f2(P,,R2,.J,J amplifier converts the electrical conductivity of the sensor to an
63 = fdPI 1 P2,.,.P,,) output voltage. The range of this voltage can be adjusted by
means of trimming resistors to the range of 0 to -10 volts for
example. In figure 2b, the first stage operational amplifier is fol-
lowed by a diode-resistor network. The diodes have to be seen
V#L = f,,(P,,PL,...P,,) (1)
as voltage references. If ordinary diodes are used, the reference
where U, is the conductivity of sensor number i, Pj is the con- voltage is more or less 0.7 volts. The output of this diode net-
centration of gas j in the gas mixture and fk is a function that work is connected to a virtual ground, namely the input of the
expresses the electrical conductivity of sensor k as a function of last stage operational amplifier.
the gases present in the gas mixture. Instead of solving the set of By adjusting the values of the resistors RI..&, it is possi-
equations analytically, a more elegant method will be discussed ble to realize an output current that is a function of the input
here. The result of solving the set of equations is that one ob- voltage. Figure 2a illustrates the principle of operation if ideal
tains n functions g, giving the concentration P, as a function of diodes are used. For the network of figure 2b, the restriction is
“1 ...6,. that the input voltage should be negative and that the output
The second problem is to implement these functions in an current should be a monotonously decreasing function of U,,,.If
electronic interface. In this paper, electronic circuits, able to the voltage references (diodes in figure 2b) are non-ideal voltage
implement the functions g, will be discussed. Figure 1 is an il- references, it remains possible to realize the desired function by
lustration of an integrated sensor system built according to this adjusting the resistors. This is illustrated in figure 2c.
strategy. It is a two dimensional experimental result.
n..lu,rd .
1
6 o .I runctlon CO and cn, concmtr.twn
ck runrim *r CO and cn, soncmtrrtion

qrnrnr 1 JO C rc1 Dum Sensor2 IO C rc1 hum

11DDC algorithm

Figure 2 : Interface circuit, resulting in an output signal that is directly pro-

portional to the gas concentration to be measured. Figure 2a represents
the output current of the diode converter circuit for ideal diodes. Figure 2c
represents the case if non-ideal diodes are used.

If the conductivity U of the sensor varies as :

with the electrical conductivity in pure air, P, the gas con-

centration to be measured and a and b constants, then we can
use the first stage amplifier of figure 2b to convert the electrical
conductivity U to an input voltage of the diode network that is
Figure 1 : Experimental results, obtained from a prototype. The DDC al-
gorithm converts the measured data. The output of the DDC algorithm is directly proportional to -(Pz)”. If we now realize the function :
implemented by means of diode converter networks ( 1 1 , g‘,, g2,g;) in order
to obtain the concentration [CO] and [CHI].
i d = (U*$ (3)
323

with the diode network, then the output voltage of the last stage
amplifier is directly proportional to Pv. In other words, the diode
network can be used as a linearizing network.
The diode network of figure 2b can be extended to networks
represented in figure 3. In this way, arbitrary functions can be
4 first two elements of the vector are the concentration of gas 1
Figpre 3 : Extension of the diode network of figure 2b. With this circuit,
= f(ui.)
arbitrary functions f can be realired : iorl
realized or approximated. The restrictions that the input voltage
should be negative and that the function should be a monotonous
decreasing function, can be omitted now.
The response of an array of 3 sensors can be treated as de-
picted in figure 4. ( A n extension to n gases is straight forward.)
In general, the concentration PIof gas 1 is a function g1 of the
responses of the three sensors. In other words:
and similarly, we can write for the other concentrations of figure
4:
p2 = 9Z(QL,Q2,Q3)
s = 93(Q1,Qz, Q3)
The functions 91, g2 and gJ can be realized by means of diode
networks of figure 3. This remains true if cross terms like ( Q , ) ' . U ~
etc. are present in the functions gi. In fact the diode networks
oncentration 2
oncentration 1
Figure 4 :Example of an array of three sensors. The output of the acnaom is
converted to three gw concentrations (Concentration 1 to 3). Each of them
concentrations represents the concentration of one gss in the g~ mixture to
be analysed.
I I r III I 7
~
connected to the first stage amplifiers of figure 4, partially over-
lap. One can prove that the complexity of an optimized interface
circuit increases with n" with n the number of gases to be de-
tected and l < Q < 2. The functions g; can also be stored in a
digital computer.
The direct data conversion algorithm (DDC)
Let us consider a two dimensional array of gas sensors. If one
1
measures the response of two sensors as a function of two gases,
then one obtains two graphs. The first one gives the response
of sensor 1 as a function of the two gas concentrations and the
second graph gives the response of sensor 2 as a function of the
two gas concentrations. In fact, one obtains a four dimensional
vector for each gas mixture that flows over the two sensors. The
and gas 2. The last two elements of the vector are the signal
of sensor 1 and sensor 2. This is illustrated in figure 5. If we
measure the response of the two sensors to 100 gas mixtures,
then we obtain 100 vectors. In figure 5 we measure the leftmost
graphs and we want to obtain the two rightmost graphs. If fact,
the leftmost graphs represent the non linear set of two equations
with two unknown values (namely the independent variables PI
and Pi). What we are interested in, is a graph expressing the
concentration of gas 1 as a function of the two sensor signals.
(See the upper right graph in figure 5: this is the solution of
the non linear set of equations for PI). This graph can be con-
structed directly by means of the set of vectors. If we take the
concentration of gas 1 together with the two sensor signals out
of a vector, and if we plot this point, then we obtain one point
(5)
p2 1
1
Measured graphs Desired graphs
Fuure 6 : The Direct Data Conversion algorithm (DDC). The function P I
M a function of U I and u2,and the function Pz M a function of ul and u2
can be deduced directly from the two measured functions.
324
7' li I i I I 1
of the desired graph. Doing the same with the other vectors re-
sults in additional points in the desired graph. In the same way
we can construct the graph expressing the concentration of gas
2 as a function of the two sensor signals.
This procedure of constructing the desired graphs from a set
of vectors is called the Direct Data Conversion algorithm (DDC).
In fact, it provides a way to solve the set of non linear equations
( I ) in a discrete number of points. This is not a disadvantage
compared with the analytical solution of the set of equations, be-
cause, even if we would be able to obtain an analytical solution,
then we would have to approximate the obtained functions in a
discrete number of points if we implement the functions with the
diode converter circuits.
This example can be extended to n dimensional arrays of sen-
sors. The only requirement for this method is that the sensors
are independent of each other.
Drift of the characteristics of sensors
Let us consider a one dimensional case. Suppose we have a gas
sensor, the characteristics of which drift with time. Let us for
illustrative purposes assume that the sensitivity of the sensor to
gas PI decreases with time. The upper left graph of figure 6
represents the drift characteristics of the sensor. The symbol t
in figure 6 is the time. If we now add a second sensor to the
system, namely a time sensor (i.e. a clock), then we obtain an
additional sensor signal, namely the time t , as measured by the
TO Sensor 1 TPi
Time t
\ Ls
Time t tS
Measured graphs Desired graphs
Figure 6 : The Direct Data Conversion algorithm (DDC), applied to elimi-
nate the influence of drift. PI is the gas concentration to be measured, U
is the response of the gas sensor, t is the real time and t , is the time as
measured by the time sensor. Compare this figure with figure 5 .
325
time sensor. As depicted in the lower left graph of figure 6, the
measured time t , usually is independent of the gas concentration
P, (Quartz crystals do not suffer from gases). As in figure 5 , we
can construct a set of four-dimensional vectors. The first two
elements of each vector are the real time t and the gas concen-
tration P , . The last two elements are the outputs of the sensors,
namely the output of the gas sensor U and the output of the time
sensor t , . Using the set of vectors, we can plot the gas concen-
tration P, as a function of the two sensor signals t , and U. The
second output of the system is the value of the interfering vari-
able, namely the real time as a function of the measured time t ,
and the sensor output signal U. It is evident that the real time
is independent of the sensor signal U.
Realization of a sensor system
Once the desired functions are obtained with the DDC algo-
rithm, they can be implemented by means of diode converter
circuits. Figure 1 is a two dimensional experimental example.
Two tin oxide gas sensors are used t o detect concentrations of
carbon monoxide and methane in mixtures of these gases. The
concentration of CO varies between 0 and 300 ppm. The concen-
tration of CHI varies between 0 and 0.5%. Relative humidity
is kept constant at 50 % at ambient temperature. As already
stated before, the requirement for the two sensors is that they
are independent of each other. This is accomplished by using a
different operating temperature for each sensor. The first sensor
operates at 400 degrees C. and the second one at 480 degrees C.
This results in different sensitivities for CO and C H , for both
sensors.
If one wants to eliminate the influence of water vapour, then
water can be considered as a third gas. A third sensor has to
be used in that case. The DDC algorithm then has t o be ap-
plied to a set of vectors each of which will have 6 elements;
([CO],[CH,],[HzO),uI,u2,u,,). The output of the system will
provide the concentration of CO, C H I and H z O .
Conclusion
It has been demonstrated that the DDC algorithm in combina-
tion with diode converter networks provides an easy way to build
n dimensional sensor systems, able to detect the concentrations
of n gases. The influence of drift of the sensors can be eliminated.
Moreover, this method to construct sensing systems, is not lim-
ited to the use of tin oxide gas sensors. The only requirement
for the sensors is that they form a set of independent sensors.
The complexity of the electronic part is proportional to n" with
n the number of gases to be detected and 1 < CY < 2.