Design, modeling and simulation of a miniaturized gas ionization sensor: Optimization of the structure and operation

Abstract: Gas ionization sensor (GIS), made of two parallel plates, works on measuring the breakdown voltage of gases that is unique for each gas. The gas breakdown inside the gas chamber occurs due to the ionization of gas molecules by accelerated electron impacts. The acceleration of electrons is very depended on the effective electric field they experience. It is shown that metallic or semiconductor nanowires grown between the two plates improve the sensitivity of the device and breakdown voltages of the gases are considerably reduced. In this work we report the design, modeling, and simulation of a miniaturized GIS based on nanowires. We have developed simulating software based on an open source simulator XOOPIC. The simulation tool is based on combined Particle-In-Cell and Monte-Carlo-Collision approaches. The tool is developed to model and simulate the gas ionization sensor to detect various gases including greenhouse gases with optimized breakdown voltages. Copyright © 2013 IFSA