ECEG 6212: ADVANCED SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER : 1

Text Book : Jon S Wilson

SENSOR: A sensor is a device that converts a physical phenomenon
into an electrical signal
It is a interface between the physical world and the world of electrical
devices(ex: computers)
Actuator: Actuator, which converts electrical signals into physical
phenomena. It is like a muscle which implements action given by
controller
TRANSDUCERS: Convert One Type of Energy into Another
Passive Sensors Require an External Source of Excitation: RTDs, Strain-
Gages
Active (Self-Generating) Sensors do not: Thermocouples, Photodiodes,
Piezoelectrics
TABLE
ACCELERATION, SHOCK AND VIBRATION SENSORS
• ACCELEROMETERS ARE TRANSDUCERS THAT WILL GIVE AN OUTPUT
PROPORTIONAL TO ACCELERATION, VIBRATION AND SHOCK.
• THESE SENSORS FOUND WIDE USE IN EVERY DAY USE AND IN RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
• ACCELEROMETERS CAN ALSO BE USED IN AIRBAG SENSORS AND AUTOMOTIVE
SECURITY ALARMS
• THE MOST POPULAR CLASS OF ACCELEROMETER IS THE PIEZOELECTRIC
ACCELEROMETER.
• OTHER CLASSES OF ACCELEROMETERS TO MEASURE AUTOMOBILE BRAKING, ELEVATOR
RIDE QUALITY AND EVEN THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF THE EARTH.
 ACCELEROMETERS CLASSIFICATION
There are three types of Accelerometers

1.Piezoelectric Accelerometers
2.Capacitive Accelerometers

3. Servo or (Force Balance) Accelerometers

 1.PIEZOELECTRIC ACCELEROMETER
• Piezoelectric accelerometers are active devices and having excellent durability.
• Sensing element is piezoelectric material
• The basic principle of piezoelectric material is that for an applied stress, it produces
proportionate electrical signal
• The basic construction of piezoelectric accelerometer is shown below
WORKING PRINCIPLE:
• The piezoelectric element act as a spring, which has a stiffness k, and connected
to the base of the accelerometer and to the seismic masses.

• When an input is present at the base of the accelerometer, a force (F) is created
on piezoelectric material proportional to the applied acceleration (a) and size of
the seismic mass (m).
• (The sensor is governed by Newton’s law of motion F = ma.)

• The force experienced by the piezoelectric crystal is proportional to the seismic

mass times the input acceleration.
• The more mass or acceleration, the higher the applied force and the more
electrical output from the crystal.
 FREQUENCY RESPONSE

• The typical frequency response of piezoelectric accelerometers is depicted in Figure 5.2.2.

• It has an extended region of flat frequency response range and a large linear amplitude range

• The resonant frequency of the sensor ω =

Piezoelectric Sensing Materials:
• Quartz crystal
• Polycrystalline ceramics.
• Quartz is a natural crystal, while ceramics are man-made. Quartz is
widely known for its ability to perform accurate measurement
• Ex: wristwatches, radios to computers and home appliances.
• Quartz is more stable of all piezoelectric materials. This important
feature gives quartz accelerometers with long-term stability and
repeatability
Temperature:
• These accelerometers works up to a maximum temperature of 121°C
• Specially designed ones can operate up to 175°C
 2.Capacitive Accelerometer
• Operation similar to piezoresistive accelerometer (change in bridge
can be measured due to change in resistance)
• In Capacitive accelerometers, they measure a change across a bridge
when there is change in capacitance
• The sensing element consists of two parallel plate capacitors acting
in differential mode
• Capacitive accelerometer produces an electrical output proportional
to acceleration
• Several types of capacitive sensing elements are there
• One among them described below
 CONSTRUCTION:

• Fig below shows the construction of capacitive sensor element

• It consists of metal sensing movable diaphragm and alumina capacitor
plates
• The diaphragm sandwiched between two fixed plates, creating two
capacitors each sharing a movable diaphragm

Working Principle:
• When there is acceleration, strain is created on
the flexure so that diaphragm vibrates
• When this element is placed in Earth’s
gravitational field or is accelerated due to
vibration on a test structure , the spring mass
experiences a force
• The force is proportional to the mass of the spring-mass and is based on Newton’s
Second Law of Motion
 BIOSENSOR
• Biosensor = Bioreceptor + Transducer
• A Biosensor consists of two components: a bioreceptor and a transducer
• The bioreceptor is a biomolecule that recognizes the target analyte

• Transducer converts the recognition event into a measurable signal

• These two components are integrated into one single sensor shown in fig 6.1.1
• For example, the glucose concentration in a blood sample can be measured directly by a
biosensor made specifically for glucose measurement, by simply dipping the sensor in the
sample.

• The simplicity and the speed of measurements that

require no specialized laboratory skills are the main
advantages of a biosensor.
• Enzyme is a Bioreceptor. When we eat food, it is
broken down into small molecules in our body via
many reaction steps (these breakdown reactions are
called catabolism)
• These small molecules are then used to make the building blocks of our body, such as proteins
(these synthesis reactions are called anabolism)

• Each of these catabolism and anabolism reactions (the combination is called metabolism) are
catalyzed by a specific enzyme

• Therefore, an enzyme is capable of recognizing a specific target molecule shown in fig 6.1.2
below

• This biorecognition capability of the enzyme is used in biosensors.

• Other biorecognizing molecules (= bioreceptors) include

antibodies, nucleic acids, and receptors
Immobilization of Bioreceptor:
• One major requirement for a biosensor is that the bioreceptor be immobilized in
the vicinity of the transducer.

• The immobilization is done either by physical entrapment or chemical

attachment. Chemical attachment often involves covalent bonding to transducer
surface by suitable reagents

• It is to be noted that only minute quantities of bioreceptor molecules are needed,

and they are used repeatedly for measurements
Transducer:
• A transducer should be capable of converting the biorecognition event into a measurable signal
shown in fig 6.1.3

• This is done by measuring the change that occurs in the bioreceptor reaction.

• For example, the enzyme glucose oxidase is used as a

bioreceptor in a glucose biosensor that catalyzes the
following reaction:
• To measure the glucose in aqueous solutions, three different transducers can be used:

1. An oxygen sensor that measures oxygen concentration, a result of glucose reaction

2. A pH sensor that measures the acid (gluconic acid), a reaction product of glucose

3. A peroxidase sensor that measures H2O2 concentration, a result of glucose reaction

• An oxygen sensor is a transducer that converts oxygen concentration into electrical current

• A pH sensor is a transducer that converts pH change into voltage change

• A peroxidase sensor is a transducer that converts peroxidase concentration into an electrical

current
Biosensor Characteristics:
• Biosensors are characterized by eight parameters. These are
(1) Sensitivity is the response of the sensor to per unit change in analyte concentration
(2) Selectivity is the ability of the sensor to respond only to the target analyte. That is, lack of
response to other interfering chemicals is the desired feature
(3) Range is the concentration range over which the sensitivity of the sensor is good. Sometimes
this is called dynamic range or linearity
(4) Response time is the time required for the sensor to indicate 63% of its final response due to a
step change in analyte concentration
(5) Reproducibility is the accuracy with which the sensor’s output can be obtained
(6) Detection limit is the lowest concentration of the analyte to which there is a measurable
response
(7) Life time is the time period over which the sensor can be used without significant
deterioration in performance characteristics
(8) Stability characterizes the change in its baseline or sensitivity over a fixed period of time
Applications of Biosensors
 CHEMICAL SENSORS
• Chemical sensors are used to detect the presence of specific chemical compounds
or elements, and their concentrations (chemical quantities)

Technology Fundamentals

1.The Nose:

• The human nasal sensing apparatus contains a remarkably flexible and sensitive
detection capability

• Humans are capable of detecting and distinguishing thousands of different smells

with almost instantaneous recognition
• All biological odor detection systems are based on a fairly small number of
distinguishable sensors
• . The
smell recognition system is based on pattern-matching of the response of the different
chemical sensors in the nose to various odors

• Our brain has stored an extensive collection of these patterns which are used for comparisons.

• Chemical sensing system designers need to

draw lessons from these biological systems

• A multifunctional system will probably need

to use a small set of distinct sensors and a
pattern-matching algorithm to identify odors
accurately.
2.Detectors of Particular Molecules
• If a chemical sensing application requires detection of a particular molecule,
several techniques are available
• These techniques are based on the unique properties of particular molecules
• One set of properties is associated with the vibrational and rotational modes of
molecules
• The exact energies of these modes are generally unique to a particular molecule,
and can be used for identification purposes
• Most vibrations and rotations are “optically active,” meaning that they may be
excited by absorption of a photon, or may relax by emission of a photon
• These photon absorptions are generally most likely to occur in the infrared, so
infrared spectroscopy is a generally useful way to identify molecules
• For example, CO is a very simple molecule (visualize two balls and a spring), capable of
oscillating at a single frequency (visualize them bouncing together and away) and rotating
about two axes, both perpendicular to the line connecting the atoms
• In the spectrum of the absorption of CO, shown in Figure 7.1.2, we see a pair of absorption
peaks
• This peak splitting is due to the fact that carbon exists in isotopes which have atomic mass of
12 or 13
• The additional mass of the C13 reduces the vibrational
energy simply because it lowers the resonant frequency
• In addition to vibrations, molecules also can have rotational
energy
MASS SPECTROMETER
• Besides the vibrations and rotations, molecules may also be recognized by their mass (or mass
spectra)
• Therefore, mass spectrometers are also used to detect and distinguish molecules. A diagram of
a magnetic mass spectrometer is shown in Figure 7.1.4.
• In this device, gas molecules are ionized by bombarding them with electrons from a heated
filament.

• Some of the molecules in the gas become positively charged

because the electron bombardment is generally more effective at
stripping electrons than adding electrons
• Once the molecules are charged, they are accelerated to a
constant kinetic energy by an electric field, and they enter the
main body of the spectrometer
• Here, there is a magnetic field, which exerts a Lorentz force on
each molecule, tending to deflect the trajectory of the molecules
• The amount of deflection depends on the velocity and on the mass, and therefore acts to
separate the molecules by their mass
• A series of detectors acts to record the molecule concentration vs. deflection angle, and the
output can be displayed as a mass spectrum
GAS CHROMATOGRAPH

• A chromatography instrument is available, where the varying molecular diffusivities are used
to detect specific molecules.
• A typical gas chromatograph is schematically shown in Figure 7.1.5
• Here, a sample is added to a pressurized carrier gas, and forced to diffuse through a “column,”
which is essentially a very long narrow tube
• The components of the sample diffuse at different rates through the column, and the detector at
the end records a signal-vs.-time trace which contains peaks that may be identified as
belonging to a specific sample.
3.ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION TECHNIQUES

• The basic principles behind such measurements are

• If a semi-permeable membrane separates two solutions, it may be possible for one component
of the solutions to diffuse through from one side to the other
• when the two solutions are introduced, it is possible for a difference to exist in the
concentration of the mobile ion on the two sides of the membrane
• In general, one side is a reference sample, and the other side is a sample to be tested
• Ions from each side begin immediately to diffuse through the membrane
• Figure 7.1.7 shows a glass membrane separating a sample
solution (on the outside) from a reference solution (inside),
and electrodes to measure the potential difference
• If the concentrations are different on the two sides of the
membrane, the amount of diffusion will be different, leading
to a net diffusion
• Since there is also a charge associated with these ions, there
is a current
• Very quickly, the motion of charge across the membrane causes the formation of an electric
field, which opposes the flow of ions
• An equilibrium is established when the electric field is large enough to overcome the
concentration difference and the diffusion rates become balanced
• At this point the potential difference across the membrane is absolutely related to the
concentration ratio
• If there is a concentration ratio of 2, there will be a potential difference of about 20 mV
• Such a potential difference is very easily measured

Summery
• Devices generally suffer from a lack of sensitivity, selectivity, and speed
• Research can be expected to grow in detection of toxins in groundwater, vehicle emissions,
biotoxins in public settings, and a large variety of chemicals in manufacturing process control