Microdevices for Low-Level Acetone Gas Sensing Using Tungsten Trioxides

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world today. It is caused by an insulin disorder that can be classified as type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Existing methods for diagnosis of diabetes are invasive which require blood sample for measuring the blood sugar level. Human breath contains low-level acetone vapour which can be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis of diabetes. Tungsten trioxide (WO₃) has very high selectivity towards acetone vapour. A combination of a sensitive device with metal oxides of high selectivity can be used for low-level gas vapour detection. Piezoresistive-based microcantilevers and interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) are the most prominent gas sensor devices with high resolution. COMSOL Multiphysics^® software used to determine optimal design conditions to get the highest sensitivity from the microdevices. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) of commercial WO₃ material have been acquired. Microcantilever and IDEs were fabricated using optimized dimensions for gas sensing. The WO₃ sensor shows excellent sensitivity and selectivity towards acetone in the presence of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like ethanol, methanol, and isopropyl alcohol (IPA).

KEYWORDS:

• Acetone
• Diabetes
• IDEs
• Microcantilever
• Microdevice
• Sensor
• WO₃

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the support of Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) under the Indian Nanoelectronics Users Program (INUP) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay which has been sponsored by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India. The authors would like to thank especially to Shrivatsa Bhat (Industrial Automation and Robotics, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal) for his support and help in the fabrication of microcantilever. The authors would also want to acknowledge the TEQIP-III of VJTI-Mumbai for their financial assistance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chetan Kamble

Chetan Kamble has received the BE degree in electronics engineering from Nagpur University, India in 2010. He received both MTech and PhD degree in electronics engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai University, India in 2013 and 2019, respectively. His PhD thesis was in the field of nanomaterials for gas sensing applications. He has authored and co-authored more than 8 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Currently, he is an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering Department of VJTI, Mumbai. His research interests include nanomaterials, nanoelectronics and gas sensor. Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

M. S. Panse

M S Panse received her BE degree, MTech and PhD degrees in 1984, 1988, and 1998, respectively, from VJTI, Mumbai. Currently, she is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, VJTI Mumbai. She is a fellow of IETE (India) and Institutes of Engineers (India). She is also a life member of ISTE and Biomedical Engineers Society of India. Her research areas are biomedical instrumentation, medical electronics, and virtual instrumentation. E-mail: [email protected]