TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Hammer, Christof A1 - Warmer, Johannes A1 - Sporrer, Sebastian A1 - Kaul, Peter A1 - Thoelen, Ronald A1 - Jung, Norbert T1 - A Compact, Reliable and Efficient 16 Channel Power Supply for the Automated Screening of Semiconducting Metal Oxide Gas Sensors JF - Electronics N2 - The choice of suitable semiconducting metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors for the detection of a specific gas or gas mixture is time-consuming since the sensor’s sensitivity needs to be characterized at multiple temperatures to find its optimal operating conditions. To obtain reliable measurement results, it is very important that the power for the sensor’s integrated heater is stable, regulated and error-free (or error-tolerant). Especially the error-free requirement can be only be achieved if the power supply implements failure-avoiding and failure-detection methods. The biggest challenge is deriving multiple different voltages from a common supply in an efficient way while keeping the system as small and lightweight as possible. This work presents a reliable, compact, embedded system that addresses the power supply requirements for fully automated simultaneous sensor characterization for up to 16 sensors at multiple temperatures. The system implements efficient (avg. 83.3% efficiency) voltage conversion with low ripple output (<32 mV) and supports static or temperature-cycled heating modes. Voltage and current of each channel are constantly monitored and regulated to guarantee reliable operation. To evaluate the proposed design, 16 sensors were screened. The results are shown in the experimental part of this work. KW - multi-channel power sourcing KW - semiconducting metal oxide gas sensor array KW - automated sensor-screening KW - high degree of diagnostic coverage and reliability UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:1044-opus-45768 SN - 2079-9292 SS - 2079-9292 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8080882 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8080882 VL - 8 IS - 8 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -