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Impact of Design Dimension Optimization on Capacitive Sensor Performance for Particulate Matter Detection and Measurement


K.V. Kulkarni
S.S. Chorage

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from exhaust gases are major pollutants and cause serious health problems. Diesel particulate filters  (DPF) are used for monitoring and trapping particulates from exhaust gases. For sensing these particulates sensors are used  downstream of a DPF. The present study proposes an interdigitated electrode (IDE) capacitive sensor for detecting and measuring  deposited particulates on the sensor surface. The sensor dimensions are optimized to detect and measure the least deposition of  particulates. The paper presents improvement in sensor performance, a high selectivity of 65.70% with an accuracy of 87.26%. Dimension  optimization extracts capacitance of 581 pF manifolds 10 times more than the reference sensor from the literature. The study presents a sensor with a thin sensing layer manufactured by optical lithography and a lift-off method for IDE. Measurements and testing showed  that the sensor measures the lowest particulate mass of 0.0045 mg in 3.4 ms 


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eISSN: 2437-2110
print ISSN: 0189-9546