Fabrication and characterization of a small-sized gas identification instrument for detecting LPG/LNG and CO gases

A small-sized gas identification system has been fabricated and characterized using an integrated gas sensor array and artificial neural-network. The sensor array consists of four thick-film oxide semiconductor gas sensors whose sensing layers are $In_{2}O_{3}-Sb_{2}O_{5}-Pd-doped\;SnO_2$ + Pd-coated layer, $La_{2}O_{5}-PdCl_{2}-doped\;SnO_2,\;WO_{3}-doped\;SnO_{2}$ + Pt-coated layer and $ThO_{2}-V_{2}O_{5}-PdCl_{2}\;doped\;SnO_{2}$. The small-sized gas identification instrument is composed of a GMS 81504 containing an internal ROM (4k bytes), a RAM (128 bytes) and four-channel AD converter as MPU, LEDs for displaying alarm conditions for three gases (liquefied petroleum gas: LPG, liquefied natural gas: LNG and carbon monoxide: CO) and interface circuits for them. The instrument has been used to identify alarm conditions for three gases among the real circumstances and the identification has been successfully demonstrated.