Microstructure for Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy for Biofuel Composition Measurement

Biofuel sensors for measuring the ethanol and gasoline concentrations in bio-ethanol blends, have been studied worldwide and currently used in engine management in FlexFuel cars fabricated by amongst others, Ford Motor Company. However, water that results from ethanol sugar cane is inevitable present in the ethanol blend and requires a sensor that is capable of measuring the full ternary ethanol/gasoline/water composition.This thesis presents the design of biofuel sensors, which can be used for the determination of compositions of liquid mixtures of ethanol and water, combined with the UV sensor, the ternary concentration problem of ethanol, water and gasoline can be solved. Firstly, the technical background, societal relevance and the purpose of this thesis are given. Subsequently, the spectrum analysis of the infrared rang is analyzed, and the ranges of interests are found. As a next step, the technologies which can possiblely applied in our application are analyzed, after that the coupling methods are analyzed. Next, the physical model of the sensor structure is built up in two simuation softwares and it is simulated in detail. After the interpretation on design properties, the fabrication process is introduced in detail and followed by the fabrication results. Finally, measurement setups were built and used for validating the simulations and model and for drawing the final research conclusions