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

SBIR 第二阶段：用于宽范围压力测量的超灵敏离子传感器

• 批准号: 2026087
• 负责人: Daniel Esposito
• 金额: $ 99.97万
• 依托单位: GUARDION, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2023-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2026087&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Ultrasensitive; ion

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.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力正在提高半导体，化学和生物化学制造的产量和质量。监控从大气压到超高真空的压力的能力是这些行业的关键需求。目前通过使用真空监测技术的组合来解决这种需求，在许多情况下，真空监测技术需要针对单个作业采用多个装置的高成本，允许多种故障模式，并且增加了对制造设备的空间限制。 当前系统中的精度误差可能导致较低的生产产量，并且由于易碎元件暴露于大气压力而导致的故障可能导致较高的维护成本和较低的工艺可用性。在这种情况下，这项新技术为几个大型制造业提供了巨大的商业利益。 该技术将进一步应用于其他大规模垂直领域，如质谱和辐射检测。这个小企业创新研究（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，结合电压控制离子源和真空传感重置机制。支撑这项技术的核心科学突破是石墨烯传感器中固有的固有电荷电流放大机制。 这导致由传感器上痕量离子的附着引起的电导的可测量的变化。电荷-电流放大的非线性性质在较低的离子通量率下缩放到较高的值，从而允许在较低的压力下具有更高的有效灵敏度。 此外，将这些传感器与电压可调离子源和适当的复位机制相结合，可以在宽范围的工作真空压力下实现稳定的长期工作。 以芯片级制造传感器允许多传感器读出，以改善信号和可再现行为，沿着具有针对故障的弹性。这些技术创新结合在一起，将使高性能真空计的开发能够满足不同的应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。