The Investigation of a SAW Oxygen Gas Sensor Operated at Room Temperature, Based on Nanostructured Zn(x)Fe(y)O Films

In this paper, we report a wireless gas sensor based on surface acoustic waves (SAW). For room temperature detection of oxygen gas, a novel nanostructured Zn(x)Fe(y)O gas-sensitive film was deposited on the surface of a SAW resonator by an oblique magnetron co-sputtering method. The measurements of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that the crystal phase composition and the microstructures of Zn(x)Fe(y)O films were significantly affected by the content of Fe. The experimental results showed that the sensors had a good response to O(2) at room temperature. The max frequency shift of the sensors reached 258 kHz as the O(2) partial pressure was 20%. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to analyze the role of Fe in the sensitization process of the Zn(x)Fe(y)O film. In addition, the internal relationship between the Fe content of the film and the sensitivity of the sensor was presented and discussed. The research indicates that the nanostructured Zn(x)Fe(y)O film has a good potential for room temperature O(2) gas detection applications.