Study of an electroless plating (EP)-based Pt/AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode-type ammonia sensor

Abstract An ammonia sensor based on a Pt/AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode, fabricated by the electroless plating (EP) technique, has been studied in this work. The studied sensor device shows a significant sensing response under an extremely low ammonia concentration of 10 ppb NH 3 /air at 115 °C. As exposed to a 1000 ppm NH 3 /air gas, a high sensing response of 16.22 with a response (recovery) time of 8.73 (2.04) min is obtained. Even at room temperature (25 °C), the studied sensor exhibits good ammonia sensing performance with a sensing response of 2.68 at 1000 ppm NH 3 /air and a low detection limit of 1 ppm NH 3 /air. Based on the excellent sensing performance and inherent advantages of low-power consumption and low-temperature operation, the studied sensor device provides the promise for high-performance ammonia sensing applications.

[1]  S. Bhansali,et al.  Effect of varying the nanostructured porous-Si process parameters on the performance of Pd-doped hydrogen sensor , 2007 .

[2]  C. Malins,et al.  Personal ammonia sensor for industrial environments. , 1999, Journal of environmental monitoring : JEM.

[3]  W. Hsu,et al.  Investigation of Hydrogen-Sensing Characteristics of a Pd/GaN Schottky Diode , 2011, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[4]  Huey-Ing Chen,et al.  Characterization of Pd-GaAs Schottky diodes prepared by the electroless plating technique , 2003 .

[5]  F. Ren,et al.  Effect of temperature on CO sensing response in air ambient by using ZnO nanorod-gated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors , 2013 .

[7]  Wen-Chau Liu,et al.  On an indium–tin-oxide thin film based ammonia gas sensor , 2011 .

[8]  Wen-Chau Liu,et al.  Characteristics of a new Pt/oxide/In0.49Ga0.51P hydrogen-sensing Schottky diode , 2003 .

[9]  Wen-Chau Liu,et al.  Ammonia sensing characteristics of a Pt/AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode , 2011 .

[10]  F. Ren,et al.  Characteristics of carbon monoxide sensors made by polar and nonpolar zinc oxide nanowires gated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor , 2013 .

[11]  Hideki Hasegawa,et al.  Unified disorder induced gap state model for insulator–semiconductor and metal–semiconductor interfaces , 1986 .

[12]  Huey-Ing Chen,et al.  Comprehensive study of adsorption kinetics for hydrogen sensing with an electroless-plated Pd–InP Schottky diode , 2003 .

[13]  Onkar Singh,et al.  ZnO assisted polyaniline nanofibers and its application as ammonia gas sensor , 2014 .

[14]  Dinesh K. Aswal,et al.  Preparation of nanofibrous polyaniline films and their application as ammonia gas sensor , 2007 .

[15]  Yixiang Duan,et al.  Optical fiber-based evanescent ammonia sensor , 2005 .

[16]  W. Hsu,et al.  Improved hydrogen sensing characteristics of a Pt/SiO2/GaN Schottky diode , 2008 .

[17]  Guoxing Xiong,et al.  Preparation of Pd/ceramic composite membrane 1. Improvement of the conventional preparation technique , 1996 .

[18]  Nicolas Alonso-Vante,et al.  Enhancing oxygen reduction reaction activity and stability of platinum via oxide-carbon composites , 2013 .

[19]  S. S. Park,et al.  Dc characteristics of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors on free-standing GaN substrates , 2003 .

[20]  V. Patil,et al.  Polypyrrole Thin Film: Room Temperature Ammonia Gas Sensor , 2011, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[21]  B. Jeyaprakash,et al.  High sensing response of β-Ga2O3 thin film towards ammonia vapours: Influencing factors at room temperature , 2014 .