Re-activation of an all solid state oxygen sensor Original Research Article

The silicon based semiconductor structure Si/SiO2/Si3N4/LaF3/Pt can be used as a potentiometric oxygen sensor working at room temperature. A thermal re-activation can be applied to overcome the earlier disadvantage of an increase in response time with continuous use. Using the Pt gate electrode as a resistive heater, very short electrical high-power pulses can be applied. A heating time as short as 300 ns was sufficient for the re-activation of the sensor. This way, only the sensitive thin layer system LaF3/Pt was heated, and the whole sensor was at room temperature immediately after heating. Impedance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and quadruple mass spectrometric (QMS)–thermogravimetry (TG) were used to investigate the mechanism of deterioration in dynamic sensor behaviour and re-activation. The formation of hydrated carbonate and the desorption of CO2 and H2O have been shown to be the causes.