NOVEL HYDROGEN DETECTION SCHEME BASED ON CHANGES IN MEGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY

CURRENT HYDROGEN GAS DETECTION SYSTEMS DO NOT RESPOND QUICKLY ENOUGH TO SAFELY MONITOR THE HYDROGEN LEVEL IN SEMICONDUCTOR PROCESS SYSTEMS. SFA PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A NEW DETECTOR BASED ON MAGNETIC EFFECTS THAT WILL MEET THE 0.25-SECOND RESPONSE TIME REQUIREMENT AND WILL BE CAPABLE OF OPERATING WITHIN A TEMPERATURE RANGE OF 500 TO 3000 DEGREES R. THE RESULT OF THE PROJECT WILL BE TO DETERMINE IF THE CHANGE INDUCED IN MAGNETIC RESPONSE OF THE SENSING ELEMENT DUE TO ITS INTERACTION WITH HYDROGEN IS SUFFICIENTLY SENSITIVE AND REPRODUCIBLE TO BE USED AS THE BASIS FOR A NEW DETECTION SCHEME. SINCE THE PROPOSED DETECTION SCHEME DOES NOT RELY ON INTERFACE REACTIONS, AS IN MOS DETECTORS, THE NEW SENSOR WILL NOT SUFFER FROM THE PROBLEMSINHERENT IN MOST CURRENT HYDROGEN GAS DETECTION SYSTEMS. AFA INTENDS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT A DETECTOR BASED ON MAGNETIC EFFECTS IS FEASIBLE BY DEVELOPING AND TESTING A PROTOTYPE DEVICE.