• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.294-300
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• 2002

In this study, we fabricated thermopile infrared sensor with floating membrane structure. Floating membrane was formed by SOI(Silicon On Insulator) structure. In SOI structure, silicon dioxide layer between top silicon layer and bottom silicon substrate was etched by HF solution, then membrane was floated over substrate. After membrane was floated, thermopile pattern was formed on membrane. By insertion of SOI technology, we could obtain thermal isolation structure easily and passivation process for sensor pattern protection was not required during fabrication process. Then, the amplifier circuit for thermopile sensor was fabricated by using $1.5{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The voltage gain of fabricated amplifier was about two hundred.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2016

NDIR $CO_2$ gas sensor was built with ASIC implemented thermopile sensor which included temperature sensor and unique elliptical waveguide structures in this paper. The temperature dependency of dual infrared sensor module ($CO_2$ and reference IR sensors) has been characterized and its output voltage characteristics according to the temperature and gas concentration were proposed for the first time. NDIR $CO_2$ gas and reference IR sensors showed linear output voltages according to the variation of ambient temperatures from 243 K to 333 K and their slopes were 14.2 mV/K and 8.8 mV/K, respectively. The output voltages of temperature sensor also presented a linear dependency according to the ambient temperature and could be described with V(T)=-3.191+0.0148T(V). The output voltage ratio between $CO_2$ and reference IR sensors revealed irrelevant to the changes of ambient temperatures and gave a constant value around 1.6255 with standard deviation 0.008 at 0 ppm. The output voltage of $CO_2$ gas sensor at zero ppm $CO_2$ gas consisted of two components; one is caused by the HPB (half pass-band) of IR filter and the other is attributed to the part of $CO_2$ absorption wavelength. The characteristics of output voltages of $CO_2$ gas sensor could be accurately modeled with three parameters which are dependent upon the ambient temperatures and represented small average error less than 1.5% with 5% standard deviation.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.6-15
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• 1997

This paper presents the multi-objective optimal design of thermopile sensor having beam or membrane structure. The thermopile sensor is composed of $Si_{3}N_{4}/SiO_{2}$ dielectric membrane, Al-polysilicon thermocouples and $RuO_{2}$ thin film for black body. The sensing method is based on the Seebeck effect which is originated from the temperature difference of the two positions, black body and silicon rim. The objective functions of the presented design are sensitivity, detectivity and thermal time constant. The modelling of the sensor is proposed including the package. The multi-objective optimization technique is applied to the design of the sensor not only inspecting the modelling equation but also simulating mathematical programming method. Especially, fuzzy optimization technique is adapted to get the optimal solution which enables the designer to reach the more practical solution. The design constraint of the voltage output originated from the change of the environmental temperature is included for practical use.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.179-185
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• 2006

We have developed a noncontact temperature sensor using a silver halides infrared optical fiber. An infrared radiation from a heat source is transferred by a silver halides infrared optical fiber and measured by infrared sensors such as a thermopile and a thermal optical power-meter. The relationships between the temperature of a heat source and the output voltage of the thermopile and the optical power of a thermal optical power-meter are determined. The measurable temperature range using a thermopile and a thermal optical power-meter are from 100 to $750^{\circ}C$ and from 30 to $750^{\circ}C$ respectively. It is expected that a noncontact temperature sensor using infrared optical fiber can be developed for medical and industrial usages based on the results of this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.138-145
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• 2009

A suspended membrane micro fluidic heat flux sensor that is able to measure the heat flow rate was designed and fabricated by a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible process. The combination of a thirty-junction gold and nickel thermoelectric sensor with an ultralow noise preamplifier, low pass filter, and lock-in amp has enabled the resolution of 50 nW power and provides the sensitivity of $11.4\;mV/{\mu}W$. The heater modulation method was used to eliminate low frequency noises from sensor output. It is measured with various heat flux fluid of DI-water to test as micro fluidic application. In order to estimate the heat generation of samples from the output measurement of a micro fluidic heat-flux sensor, a methodology for modeling and simulating electro-thermal behavior in the micro fluidic heat-flux sensor with integrated electronic circuit is presented and validated. The electro-thermal model was constructed by using system dynamics, particularly the bond graph. The electro-thermal system model in which the thermal and the electrical domain are coupled expresses the heat generation of samples converts thermal input to electrical output. The proposed electro-thermal system model shows good agreement with measured output voltage response in transient state and steady-state.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.377-381
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• 2016

NDIR $CO_2$ gas sensor was prototyped with ASIC implemented thermopile sensor which included temperature sensor and White-Cell structure in this paper. The temperature dependency of dual infrared sensors ($CO_2$ and reference IR sensors) has been characterized and their output voltage ratios according to the temperature and gas concentration were presented in this paper for achieving temperature compensation algorithm. The initial output voltages of NDIR $CO_2$ gas and reference IR sensors showed $3^{rd}$ order polynomial and linear output voltages according to the variation of ambient temperatures from 253 K to 333 K, respectively. The output voltages of temperature sensor presented a linear dependency according to the ambient temperature and could be described with V(T) = -3.0069+0.0145T(V). The characteristics of output voltage ratios could be modeled with five parameters which are dependent upon the ambient temperatures and gas concentration. The estimated $CO_2$ concentrations showed relatively high error below 300 ppm (maximum 572 % at 7 ppm $CO_2$ concentration), however, as the concentration increased from 500 ppm to 2,000 ppm, the overall estimated errors of $CO_2$ concentrations were less than ${\pm}10%$ in this research.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.11
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• pp.46-54
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• 1998

A planar Bi-Sb multijunction thermal converter, which is consisted of a linear or bifilar thin film NiCr-heater and a thin film Bi-Sb thermopile, has been fabricated, and its ac-dc transfer characteristics were examined in a frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 KHz. In order to increase the thermal sensitivity and to decrease the ac-dc transfer error of a thermal converter, the heater and the hot junctions of a thermopile were prepared on a Si$_3$N$_4$/SiO$_2$/Si$_3$N$_4$-diaphragm which acts as a thermal isolation layer, and the cold junctions on the Si$_3$N$_4$/SiO$_2$/Si$_3$N$_4$-thin film supported with the silicon rim which functions as a heat sink. The respective thermal sensitivities in air and in a vacuum of the converter with a built-in bifilar heater were about 14.0 ㎷/㎽ and 54.0 ㎷/㎽, and the ac-dc voltage and the current transfer difference ranges in air were about $\pm$0.60 ppm and $\pm$0.11 ppm, respectively, indicating that the ac-dc transfer accuracy of the converter are much higher than that of a commercial 3-dimensional multijunction thermal converter. However, the output thermoelectric voltage fluctuation of the converter was rather high.

• 한국가스학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.123-128
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• 2006

This paper describes NDIR $CO_2$ gas sensor that shows the characteristics of temperature compensation. It consists of novel optical cavity that has two elliptical mirrors and a thermopile detector that includes ASIC chip in the same metal package for the amplification of detector output voltage and temperature sensor. The newly developed sensor modules shows high accuracy (less than +/-40 ppm) throughout the measuring concentration of $CO_2$ gas from 0 ppm to 2,000 ppm. After implementing the calculation methods of gas concentration, which is based upon the experimental results, the sensor module shows high accuracy less than +/- 5 ppm error throughout the measuring temperature range $(15^{\circ}C\;to\; 35^{\circ}C)$ and gas concentrations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2016

This study proposes the temperature compensation algorithm using thermopile detector for non-dispersive infrared Nitrogen gas sensor. From the output voltage of thermistor that is attached onto the infrared detector, the ambient temperature was extracted. The effects of temperatures on the properties of sensor module characteristics of narrow bandpass filter, optical cavity and infrared lamp, and air mixing gas have been introduced in order to implement the temperature compensation algorithm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.51-55
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• 2011

This paper describes the temperature compensation algorithm using thermopile detector for nondispersive infrared methane gas sensor. From the output voltage of thermistor that is attached onto the infrared detector, the ambient temperature was extracted. The effects of temperatures on the properties of sensor module (the characteristics of narrow bandpass filter, optical cavity and infrared lamp, and gas absorption coefficient times optical path length) have been introduced in order to implement the temperature compensation algorithm. Even though the measurement error of developed sensor module was in the range of $\pm$ 1,500 ppm, after programming the temperature compensation algorithm, the developed sensor module shows a high accuracy less than +180 ppm error within $20^{\circ}C$ temperature variation.