Hydrocarbon detection via ion implantation in metal-insulator-semiconductor devices

A method for using metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) sensors to detect hydrocarbons is described. In this method, hydrocarbon gases are ionized and focused in an energetic beam onto the surface of a MIS device using an ion gun. This detection scheme is found to be selective to hydrogen-containing compounds, with other species yielding no detectable response. The magnitude of the sensor response is found to be a strong function of the current flux and beam energy. These results suggest that ion implantation in MIS devices may be a useful sensing strategy for detection of various combustible gases. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.