Pt-AlGaN/GaN Hydrogen Sensor With Water-Blocking PMMA Layer

Abstract

One of the biggest issues with GaN-based hydrogen sensors is their sensitivity to humidity in the ambient. We demonstrate that encapsulation of Pt-AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) provides effective mitigation of the effects of water. Without PMMA encapsulation, the absolute current signal for detection of 500 ppm of H2 was decreased by a factor of 8 in the presence of water. By sharp contrast, encapsulated diodes show no decrease in response in the presence of water. The relative current changes are of the order $2.8 \times 10^{5}$ % when 500 ppm H2 is introduced to the surface of bare or PMMA encapsulated diodes in the absence of water or to encapsulated diode in the presence of water. Detection limits of ~ 100 ppm H2 (0.01% by volume) were obtained with standard forward bias detection mode at 1.3 V.