• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.368-373
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• 2018

The effects of long-term exposure of high and low humidity on thin-film humidity sensors are investigated. Five commercially available thin-film humidity sensors are initially calibrated in a humidity chamber as a reference before longterm exposure to high and low humidity. Then, the sensors are kept in a high-humidity environment (~95 %rh) for four months. After the exposure, the sensors are calibrated in the same manner as the initial calibration. Consequently, the device reading values from the humidity sensors are elevated up to about 5 %rh. Interestingly, the degree of elevation by the high-humidity exposure shows a negative correlation with the price of the humidity sensors. Humidity sensors are then kept in a low-humidity environment (~10 %rh) for another four months. After the exposure, a calibration similar to the initial calibration is performed. As a result, the device reading from humidity sensors is decreased, indicating a recovery from the effect of high-humidity exposure. The durability test conducted in this study provides experimental evidence for the use of thin-film humidity sensors in high-humidity environments such as greenhouses and food factories for a long period of time.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.420-424
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• 2012

We have investigated temperature dependence and long-term change of humidity measurement from 32 relative humidity sensors. The readings of the humidity sensors depended not only the reference humidity, but also temperature of the chamber. Approximately, the temperature dependence of the humidity sensor in average was 0.05 %R.H./$^{\circ}C$ in the temperature range from $5^{\circ}C$ to $55^{\circ}C$. For humidity sensors that have an internal temperature compensation circuit, the resulting temperature dependence was weaker by 20%. It should be also noted that for the humidity sensors used in this work underwent ${\pm}3$ %R.H. change per year for level of confidence of 95%. The users of relative humidity sensors may refer this value as a minimum change when they set the calibration interval of the humidity sensors.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.397-401
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• 2017

A DC resistance type humidity sensor using conductive carbon ink was fabricated and its performance was evaluated. The humidity sensor was fabricated using a screen printing technique and have a structure that does not require additional metal electrodes to measure resistance change. To evaluate the performance of the humidity sensor, we measured the DC resistance change under various relative humidity levels. The fabricated humidity sensor showed a resistance change of about $2.5{\sim}50k{\Omega}$ in 11 ~ 95% RH environment. It also shows a linear relationship in the relative humidity versus log DC resistance graph. In comparison with commercial humidity sensor under real environment, it can be confirmed that the resistance of the humidity sensor changes to almost the same level as the measured humidity. These results show that the resistance type humidity sensor can be operated stably in actual environment.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2007

Crystallized carbon nitride film that has many stable physical and/or chemical properties has been expected potentially by a new electrical material. However, one of the most significant problems degrading the quality of carbon nitride films is an existence of N-H and C-H bonds from the deposition environment. The possibility of these reactions with hydroxyl group in carbon nitride films, caused by a hydrogen attack, was suggested and proved in our previous reports that this undesired effect could be applied for fabricating micro-humidity sensors. In this study, MIS capacitor and MIM capacitor with $5{\mu}m{\times}5{\mu}m$ meshes were fabricated. As an insulator, carbon nitride film was deposited on a $Si_{3}N_{4}/SiO_{2}/Si$ substrate using reactive magnetron sputtering system, and its dielectric constant, C-V characteristics and humidity sensing properties were investigated. The fabricated humidity sensors showed a linearity in the humidity range of 0 %RH to 80 %RH. These results reveal that MIS and MIM $CN_{X}$ capacitive humidity sensors can be used for Si based micro-humidity sensors.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2014

It is important to accurately measure and control the relative humidity of humidified gas entering a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack because the level of humidification strongly affects the performance and durability of the stack. Humidity measurement devices can be used to directly measure the relative humidity, but they cost much to be equipped and occupy spaces in a fuel cell system. We present soft sensors for predicting the relative humidity without actual humidity measuring devices. By combining FIR (finite impulse response) model with PLS (partial least square) and SVM (support vector machine) regression models, DPLS (dynamic PLS) and DSVM (dynamic SVM) soft sensors were developed to correctly estimate the relative humidity of humidified gases exiting a planar-type membrane humidifier. The DSVM soft sensor showed a better prediction performance than the DPLS one because it is able to capture nonlinear correlations between the relative humidity and the input data of the soft sensors. Without actual humidity sensors, the soft sensors presented in this work can be used to monitor and control the humidity in operation of PEM fuel cell systems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.247-248
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• 2006

Carbon nitride films were evaluated that they had many advantages for miniature micro-humidity-sensors using the standard CMOS technology humidity sensing properties and CV characteristics of the carbon nitride films have been investigated for fabricating one chip HUSFET(Humidity Sensitive Field Effect Transistor) humidity sensors Carbon nitride films were deposited on silicon substrate with meshed electrodes by reactive RF magnetron sputtering system. The capacitor-type humidity sensor revealed good humidity-impedance characteristics with a wide range of relative humidity changes, decreasing $254k{\Omega}$ to $16k{\Omega}$ according to increase of relative humidity between 5% ~ 95% and the films were very stable on the Si wafer. These results reveal that $CN_x$ thin films can be used for Si based or HUSFET structure one chip micro-humidity sensors.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.343-349
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• 2005

Carbon nitride films were deposited on various substrates for humidity sensors with meshed electrode by reactive RF magnetron sputtering system. As the ratio of injected nitrogen was decreased, the sensitivity of sensor was increased. When the ratio of injected nitrogen was $50{\sim}70%$, the sample showed the best linearity. The sensor impedance changed from $95.4{\;}k{\Omega}$ to $2.1{\;}k{\Omega}$ in a relative humidity range of 5 % to 95 %. The humidity sensors based on silicon wafer revealed higher lineality and faster response than those of alumina or quartz substrates. The adsorption saturation time of the sample was about 80 sec, and its desorption time was about 90 sec.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.436-442
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• 2007

Physical properties and impedance-humidity characteristics of carbon nitride films were investigated for micro-humidity-sensors. Carbon nitride films were deposited in low temperature and low power for application of semiconductor fabrication process, and empirical equation was proposed for thickness evaluation. Deposited films had an uniform and compact surface comparing with previously reported results, which was expected a good candidate for humidity sensing materials. Carbon nitride humidity sensors based on Si substrate revealed good humidity-impedance characteristics with a wide range of relative humidity and showed low hysteresis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.368-371
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• 2003

The humidity sensors with a stable characteristics and gas sensors operating at room temperature have been fabricated, and a multi-functional sensor system which has gas sensor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor and control circuit has been applied to the microwave oven system. For a suitable cooking state, the humidity sensors was more applicable to heating and defrosting condition than gas sensors, however, the dynamic characteristics of gas sensors were obtained in the easy burning food such as pop corn.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.243-249
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• 2021

Humidity is an important physical quantity that is closely related with the quality of everyday life as well as the quality control of products in various industries. Here, we have developed a divided-flow type humidity generator of which humidity generation is faster than the saturator-based humidity generator in ppm level. The operation principle of the divided-flow humidity generator is first introduced. Then, the performance of the divided-flow humidity generator is verified by testing the radiosonde humidity sensor at low temperature. As a result, the humidity generated from the divided-flow humidity generator is consistent with the saturator-based precision humidity generator within 1.6% relative humidity in the range from 10% to 40% at -45 ℃. It is also found that the radiosonde humidity sensor shows measurement errors by 3% - 5% at -45 ℃ when it is only calibrated at room temperature. The response times of radiosonde humidity sensor using the divided-flow humidity generator are between about 2 and 9 minutes, whereas those by the saturator-based humidity generator are about 20 minutes. In this regard, the divided-flow humidity generator has a merit in terms of fast humidity changes for the calibration of radiosonde humidity sensors at low-temperatures.