MiCS Application Note 2

Frequently Asked Questions for MiCS Gas Sensors

This application note is a complement to most SGX Sensitivity

Sensortech MiCS sensor datasheets. It contains answers to
the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) asked by SGX
Sensortech MiCS sensor users.

HOW DOES A SEMICONDUCTOR

SENSOR WORK?
A sensing layer, composed of a metal oxide, generally
SnO2, is heated by a heater structure. When chemicals are
absorbed on its surface, its electrical conductivity changes
locally; this leads to a change of its electrical resistance.
Analysing the modifications of the resistance over time,
compared with reference values, can give some information Temperature
about variable gas concentrations. Semiconductor gas
sensors are more complex than other sensors because they HOW DO GAS SENSORS REACT TO
combine thermal, chemical and electrical effects.
HUMIDITY AND INTERFERING GASES?
The baseline resistance can vary a lot from sensor to
sensor, and according to the measuring conditions, which is The ambient humidity has an influence on the baseline
why SGX Sensortech recommend monitoring the sensitivity, resistance, the sensitivity and reactivity of the sensors. The
i.e. the relative change of the sensing resistance Rs against water is absorbed by the sensitive layer and reacts as a
the baseline resistance Ro; S = (Rs - Ro)/Ro. This allows reducing gas. However, this effect is not strong and can be
the realisation of applications with detection of gas neglected in some applications. It is possible to use pulsed
concentration changes rather than absolute measurements modes to discriminate humidity from other target gases (see
(see also calibration topic). also pulsed modes topic).
These effects need to be characterised and compensated in
HOW DO GAS SENSORS REACT TO order to provide an absolute measurement (see topic on
TEMPERATURE? calibration).

The ambient temperature has an influence on the baseline As an example, 15 ppm ozone at 40% RH corresponds to
resistance, the sensitivity and reactivity of the sensors. 20 ppm ozone at 80% RH.
These effects need to be characterised and compensated in The influence of interfering gases such as VOCs or ozone
order to provide an absolute measurement (see topic on can be suppressed by the addition of a filter such as
calibration). activated carbon.

SGX Sensortech (IS) Ltd Registered in England No. 08067077 A1A-MiCS_AN2 Version 1, August 2007
IS A WARM-UP TIME NEEDED BEFORE As the characteristic curves of the sensors are non-linear,
SGX Sensortech recommends the use of multi-point
USING THE GAS SENSOR? calibrations, covering the whole range of the application in
Yes. The sensor needs some time in order to reach its terms of temperature, humidity and gas concentration. Once
chemical equilibrium. As the sensor changes temperature, the set of calibration parameters is obtained, the data can
some chemicals will be released and some will be absorbed be interpreted using polynomials or curve fitting techniques.
the sensitive surface and the conductivity will stabilise. For some applications where accurate absolute
The stabilisation is faster when operated at high measurement is required, a periodic recalibration is
temperature. That is why pre-heating at a higher then recommended. Other applications where less precision is
nominal temperature is sometimes used. As an example, required can manage with a single calibration.
the NO2 sensor is preheated (normally operated at 40 mW) Example: A monthly calibration is recommended for the
at 80 mW for 30 seconds before use. Generally speaking, OMC2 to measure ozone pollution in the air in the range 20
the longer the warm up phase, the better the precision will ppb to 200 ppb with ±20% accuracy over a typical range of
be. temperature of 15 °C to 35 °C.

DOES AIRFLOW HAVE AN INFLUENCE Applications such as automotive AQS, using only relative
sensor signals, do not typically require calibration.
ON THE MEASUREMENT?
Yes. Direct airflow on the sensor surface will change the HOW STABLE IS A SEMICONDUCTOR
conductivity of the sensor by altering the heated layer GAS SENSOR WITH TIME?
temperature. That is why SGX Sensortech recommends
placing the sensor behind a Teflon membrane in most Above a certain operating temperature, the heater
applications. The Teflon membrane allows diffusion of the resistance will slowly increase with time. This is a known
gases, while reducing the influence of the air speed. phenomenon that can be easily compensated with an
appropriate circuitry.
Air Flow Long-term tests have shown that at 40 mW, no drift is
measurable over 6000 hours. At 80 mW, the heater
Teflon resistance can rise up to 30%. By powering the sensor with
Housing
Membrane an appropriate series resistance on the heater, this
resistance does not impact the sensor power by more than
2% over the same period, which is sufficient for most
applications. More sophisticated “constant power” circuitry
can be used to fully eliminate this effect.
A second source of sensor characteristics drift is the ageing
of the sensitive layer itself, for example due to poisoning
Sensor from ambient pollutants. This behaviour is strongly
dependent on the application and should be tested in the
IS CALIBRATION NEEDED, AND HOW appropriate configuration.
OFTEN?
HOW LARGE IS THE Ro AND S
It depends on the application, and on the required precision.
Several factors tend to reduce the measurement accuracy PRODUCTION SPREAD?
e.g. production dispersion on base resistance (Ro) and On the baseline resistance, a factor of 5 in production
sensitivity (S), temperature, humidity, the presence of spread is typical. The sensitivity is typically spread over a
interfering gases, ageing of the sensor, and on-time. factor of 2 to 8 depending on the target gas. This data
Calibration is needed when the required accuracy cannot be comes from laboratory measurements. In the real
obtained due to one or more of the factors listed above. This application conditions, these figures are typically lower.
is the case for most applications where an absolute gas For example, in automotive applications, the gas sensors
measurement is needed. are set up to react to a broad range of gases (such as
VOCs). In this case, the tolerance on sensitivity is reduced
by a factor of 2 or 3 instead of 8.

SGX Sensortech (IS) Ltd Registered in England No. 08067077 A1A-MiCS_AN2, page 2
HOW CAN I AVOID PERMANENTLY HOW TO POWER THE SENSOR
DAMAGING THE SENSORS? Warning: The sensor should be powered with a DC voltage.
Any over-voltage leading to powers greater than 120 mW It could be thought that powering the heating circuit with 5 V
will permanently damage the sensor. The sensors are also and a PWM rate of 65% is equivalent to powering it with
ESD sensitive and should be properly handled to avoid any 3.25 V constant voltage. This is not the case. As the sensor
adverse effects. structure consists of a precisely micro machined silicon
diaphragm with an embedded heating resistor Rh, the
Generally, SGX recommendations are as follows: resulting over-voltage would permanently damage the
sensor. This configuration has been tested with up to
• The sensor must not be wave soldered without
100.000 Hz.
protection.
One of the simplest circuits used for powering SGX
• The sensor must not be exposed to high concentrations Sensortech sensors is the following:
of organic solvents, ammonia, silicone vapours, e.g.
HMDS or cigarette smoke, in order to avoid poisoning
the sensitive layer. Silicon vapours can permanently
damage the sensitive layer of the sensor, due to a
coating effect.
• Heater voltages above the specified maximum rating will
destroy the sensor due to overheating. Heating by PWM
between 0 and 5 V has been tested until 100,000 Hz and
destroys the sensor. The heating voltage must be pure
DC voltage.
• This sensor should be placed in a filtered package that
protects it against liquid, water or dust projections.
• Degassing of plastic material can adversely influence the
product performance, mainly due to the presence of A resistor Rd is used to build a voltage divider with the
Volatile Organic Compounds. The components of the heater resistance (Rh). The two resistors in series are
plastic housings, O-rings, foams etc. must be degassed powered with 5 V. The sensing resistor (Rs) is then
before assembly. measured with an AD converter or a microcontroller, for
example (see also signal interpretation topic).
• To protect the sensor, a convenient solution is to place it
in a sealed plastic housing. The sensor element is
placed near a hole that is closed with a breather HOW TO INTERPRET THE SENSOR
membrane (polyester coated with PTFE) such as those SIGNAL
used to avoid contamination of microelectronic devices.
The resistance Rs can be read with an A/D converter. To
adapt the scale to the resistance range, the microcontroller
CAN GAS SENSORS BE POISONED? can switch two or three resistors in series. The number of
Yes, some gases can modify the behaviour of the sensing resistors to be switched varies with the precision of the
resistance (see also sensor damage topic). ADC. With a 10-bit ADC, two switching resistors may be
sufficient to cover a range of sensing resistance extending
for example from 2kΩ to 1MΩ.

SGX Sensortech (IS) Ltd Registered in England No. 08067077 A1A-MiCS_AN2, page 3
WHAT ARE PULSED MODES, AND HOW During the high temperature step (around 100 mW for
example), absorbed interfering species are removed from
CAN THEY HELP? the sensing layer). When the temperature abruptly
“Pulsed Modes” consist of powering the sensor heater with changes* from the high level to the low level, a new
pulses instead of DC voltages, and then exploiting the chemical balance tries to establish itself. This leads to
dynamic behaviour of the sensing resistance instead of dynamic effects on the sensing resistance that carry
reading a stabilised or quasi-stabilised output. information on the presence of gases. In the case of CO,
after the change from hot to cold, the resistance rises
These application modes are very powerful and very
sharply and then falls gradually towards a new stable value.
complex. In order to clarify the possibilities of such methods,
The observed decay in resistance reflects the reaction
an example for the detection of CO is provided.
kinetics involved in the oxidation of the CO molecules and
Carbon monoxide reacts at lower temperatures than volatile the ion sorption of oxygen. The resistance of the sensing
organic compounds (VOC) or combustible hydrocarbons layer can for example be measured at the end of this cold
(CHC) because the CO molecules do not need to dissociate step. Another way to extract valuable information is to
to react with the SnO2 layer. Therefore, the selectivity to CO measure the sensor resistance on several points
is higher at lower temperatures. Unfortunately, at low immediately following the temperature transitions.
temperatures, the response time is high and the sensing
These methods have significant potential but require
surface can easily accumulate interfering gas species such
specific development for each application. Power
as water vapour or VOCs. A high temperature “step”
consumptions as low as 1 mW can be achieved while still
ensures that the sensing layer is cleaned and sensitised
extracting appropriate information on the gas(es) to be
before each new measurement. Since the average
detected.
operating temperature is lower in the cycled mode than in
the constant-voltage mode, the average power consumption The optimum duration of the pulses can vary from 20 ms to
is reduced as well, which can be a decisive advantage in several minutes, depending on the application and the
many applications. response time and accuracy required.

Behavior of MiCS-4512 RED with heater profile cold/hot cycle 1000-500 ms

* The typical heater temperature rise time and fall time is
at 350°C with 50% RH, 21°C sensor #82 approximately 20 ms.
2.5

2
Vheater & Vload [V]

1.5

Vload
Vheater

0.5

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Time [ms]

Behavior of MiCS-4512 RED with cold/hot cycle 1000-500 ms

at 350°C with 50% RH, 21°C sensor #82
4

3.5

2.5
air
V lo a d V h e ate r [V ]

5 ppm CO
10 ppm CO
2
20 ppm CO
Vheater
1.5

0.5

0
990 1000 1010 1020 1030 1040 1050
Time [ms]

Whilst SGX has taken care to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein it accepts no responsibility for the consequences of any use thereof and also
reserves the right to change the specification of goods without notice. SGX accepts no liability beyond the set out in its standard conditions of sale in respect of
infringement of third party patents arising from the use of tubes or other devices in accordance with information contained herein.

SGX Sensortech (IS) Ltd Registered in England No. 08067077 A1A-MiCS_AN2, page 4