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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力正在使半导体，化学和生化制造的吞吐量和质量提高。监测从大气到超高真空的压力的能力对于这些行业来说是一个迫切的需求。目前，通过使用真空监视技术的组合来解决这种需求，这些技术在许多情况下需要高昂的单个工作设备，允许多种故障模式，并增加制造设备上的空间约束。 当前系统的准确性错误可能导致由于脆弱的元素暴露于大气压而导致的产量和失败会导致更高的维护成本和较低的流程可用性。在这种情况下，这项新技术在几个大型制造业中提供了可观的商业利益。 该技术将进一步利用其他大规模垂直领域，例如质谱和辐射检测。这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）II期项目将利用低功率石墨烯的超敏感离子感应性能与电压控制的离子结合在一起真空感测的源和重置机制。基础这项技术的核心科学突破是石墨烯传感器中本质上存在的一种超高的内在电荷到电流的扩增机制。 这导致由于传感器上的痕量离子附着的附着，导致了可测量的变化。在较低的离子 - 频率速率下，电荷到电流放大尺度的非线性性质将较高的值量表在较低的压力下允许更大的有效灵敏度。 此外，将这些传感器与电压可接合离子源和适当的重置机制相结合，可以在各种操作真空压力上稳定，长期运行。 芯片尺度的制造传感器可以进行多传感器读数，以改善信号和可重复的行为，以及抗故障的弹性。综上所述，这些技术创新将允许开发用于不同应用的高性能真空仪表。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。