Comparison of electrical measurements of nanostructured gas sensors using wire bonding vs. probe station

Abstract

A critical aspect to improving the understanding of nanostructured gas sensors is the accurate and reliable electrical characterization of these materials under real testing conditions. The comparison of sensor measurements from a probe electrical measurement station and a wire bonded sensor in a tube furnace is presented in this paper. Although sensor testing utilizing tube furnaces has shown to produce useful and promising results, a specialized probe station can be used to perform high throughput testing of unique sensor characteristics. These characterization techniques can be time consuming or difficult to achieve with more traditional testing methods. For this reason, it is important for researchers to be aware of the advantages and drawbacks of using each testing method. Gas sensing measurements from SnO2 multi-nanowire sensors obtained using the probe station are compared to measurements performed in a horizontal tube furnace on the same sensors. Results comparing a traditional tube furnace vs. probe station sensor characterization demonstrate how DC measurements and AC measurements may produce different results from each testing method.