Five new liquid electrolyte hydride sensors offer improved performance in demanding environments

Citation

(2010), "Five new liquid electrolyte hydride sensors offer improved performance in demanding environments", Microelectronics International, Vol. 27 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/mi.2010.21827bad.005

Five new liquid electrolyte hydride sensors offer improved performance in demanding environments

Article Type: New products From: Microelectronics International, Volume 27, Issue 2

City Technology, of Portsmouth, England, who specialize in the design and manufacture of gas sensors for use in fixed and portable life safety monitoring equipment, has enhanced and extended its premium Sensoric family of hydride exotic gas sensors. Certain hydride gases, notably arsine, silane, phosphine, diborane and hydrogen selenide, play a critical part in semiconductor, photovoltaic material and metal leaching manufacturing processes, but, given their highly toxic, corrosive and explosive nature, exhaustive monitoring is essential to ensure safe work environments and properly functioning processes.

The new generation sensors all use a patented ionic liquid electrolyte to provide much improved output level stability, responsiveness, and overall performance improvements in the aggressive environments in which they operate. The new arsine and silane sensors are improved versions of existing gel-based devices, and three new sensors, characterised to detect phosphine, diborane, and hydrogen selenide, have also been introduced. The ionic liquid combination has excellent thermal stability with no measurable vapour pressure, giving outstanding results when subjected to wide variations in operating temperature, relative humidity, and gas flow rates.