A novel approach for improving the performance of gas sensors using a thermal-conductivity-based micro-resonator and Lorentz-forces

Abstract

There is an urgent demand for developing high performance greenhouse gas sensors for industrial and safety applications. For that, we present here a novel approach to enhance the sensitivity of the gas sensors. The method is based on driving a heated buckled micro-beam subjected to a DC electrostatic voltage with a distributed Lorentz force. However, in the presence of an electrostatic force, previous design suffers from a limited sensitivity since they may undergo the buckling bifurcation. Hence, we demonstrate here the use an electromagnetic actuation in order to maximize the sensitivity of the sensor. An analytical model is adopted to comprehend and validate its performance, demonstrating good agreement with the experimental results. Moreover, these results indicate significant improvements in the slope (sensitivity), power consumption, and driving voltage, which offer valuable information for the design and optimization of greenhouse gas sensors. As a case study, we demonstrate experimentally a high-performance greenhouse gas sensor (towards CH4 and CO2 detections). Moreover, we showed that the proposed approach can enhance the sensitivity by up to 22 %. Therefore, the suggested gas sensing methodology holds promise for the development of ultra-low- power, highly sensitive greenhouse gas sensors.