Evaluation of response time in ball surface-acoustic-wave hydrogen sensor using digital quadrature detector

Hydrogen leak detection sensors must have high sensitivity and a short response time of 1 s or less. A ball surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) hydrogen sensor has a high sensitivity and can detect hydrogen in a very wide concentration range of 10 ppm to 100%. Moreover, a fast response can be expected because of the very thin sensitive film used. In this study, we developed a digital quadrature detector (DQD) to measure responses of less than 1 s, and measure phases in I ms intervals with excellent sensitivity. We evaluated the response time of the ball SAW hydrogen sensor where the signal was averaged 256 times in 0.256 s using the DQD. As a result, the response time was found to be 1 s or less for 3.0 vol % hydrogen gas in nitrogen.