SBIR Phase II: Ultrasensitive ion-sensors for wide range pressure measurement

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力使半导体、化学和生化制造领域的生产能力和质量得以提高。能够监测从大气压到超高真空的压力是这些行业的迫切需要。目前通过使用真空监控技术的组合来满足这一需求，在许多情况下，这些技术组合需要为单个作业使用多个设备的高成本，允许多种故障模式，并增加对制造设备的空间限制。当前系统中的精度错误可能会导致较低的产量，而由于易碎元素暴露在大气压下而导致的故障可能会导致更高的维护成本和更低的工艺可用性。在这种背景下，这项新技术在几个大型制造业中提供了巨大的商业利益。这项技术将进一步用于其他大规模垂直领域，如质谱仪和辐射探测。这项小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将利用低功率石墨烯传感器的超灵敏离子传感特性，结合压控离子源和真空传感的重置机制。支撑这项技术的核心科学突破是石墨烯传感器固有的超高本征电荷电流放大机制。这会导致传感器上附着微量离子而导致电导发生可测量的变化。电荷-电流放大的非线性性质在较低的离子通量速率下可缩放到较高的值，从而在较低的压力下允许更高的有效灵敏度。此外，将这些传感器与电压可调离子源和适当的重置机构相结合，可以在广泛的操作真空压力范围内稳定、长期运行。在芯片规模制造传感器允许多传感器读数，以改善信号和重复性，以及对故障的恢复能力。总而言之，这些技术创新将允许开发适用于各种应用的高性能真空计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is enabling increased throughput and quality in semiconductor, chemical and biochemical manufacturing. The ability to monitor pressure from atmosphere to ultra-high vacuum is a critical need for these industries. This need is currently addressed by using combinations of vacuum monitoring technologies that, in many cases, require the high cost of employing multiple devices for a single job, allowing for multiple failure modes, and increasing the space constraints on the manufacturing equipment. Errors in accuracy in current systems can lead to lower production yields and failures due to exposure of fragile elements to atmospheric pressure can lead to higher maintenance costs and lower process availability. In this context, this new technology offers a substantial commercial benefit across several large-scale manufacturing industries. This technology will be further leveraged for other large-scale verticals such as mass spectrometry and radiation detection.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will exploit ultrasensitive ion-sensing properties of low-power graphene sensors combined with voltage-controlled ion sources and resetting mechanisms for vacuum sensing. The core scientific breakthrough that underpins this technology is an ultrahigh intrinsic charge-to-current amplification mechanism inherently present in the graphene sensors. This results in measurable changes in electrical conductance caused by the attachment of trace quantities of ions on the sensors. The nonlinear nature of the charge-to-current amplification scales to higher values at lower ion-flux rates, thereby allowing greater effective sensitivity at lower pressures. In addition, combining these sensors with voltage-tunable ion sources and appropriate resetting mechanisms enables stable, long-term operation over a wide range of operating vacuum pressure. Manufacturing sensors at the chip scale allows for multi-sensor readout for improved signal and reproducible behavior, along with resilience against failure. Taken together, these technological innovations will allow the development of high-performance vacuum gauges for diverse applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.