A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio

A highly sensitive light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES) sensor employing a charge amplifier (CA) is reported for the first time in this invited paper. CA has the merits of high input impedance and strong anti-interference ability. The usually used transimpedance amplifier (TA) and voltag...

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Main Authors: Hanxu Ma, Shunda Qiao, Ying He, Yufei Ma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/3/946
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author Hanxu Ma
Shunda Qiao
Ying He
Yufei Ma
author_facet Hanxu Ma
Shunda Qiao
Ying He
Yufei Ma
author_sort Hanxu Ma
collection DOAJ
description A highly sensitive light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES) sensor employing a charge amplifier (CA) is reported for the first time in this invited paper. CA has the merits of high input impedance and strong anti-interference ability. The usually used transimpedance amplifier (TA) and voltage amplifier (VA) were also studied under the same conditions for comparison. A standard commercial quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a resonant frequency of approximately 32.76 kHz was used as the photothermal signal transducer. Methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) was used as the target gas in these sensors for performance verification. Compared to the TA-LITES sensor and VA-LITES sensor, the reported CA-LITES sensor shows improvements of 1.83 times and 5.28 times in the minimum detection limit (MDL), respectively. When compared to the LITES sensor without an amplifier (WA-LITES), the MDL has a 19.96-fold improvement. After further optimizing the gain of the CA, the MDL of the CA-LITES sensor was calculated as 2.42 ppm, which further improved the performance of the MDL by 30.3 times compared to the WA-LITES. Additionally, long-term stability is analyzed using Allan deviation analysis. When the average time of the sensor system is increased to 50 s, the MDL of the CA-LITES sensor system can be improved to 0.58 ppm.
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spelling doaj-art-81a4e71a5a1d4a2882ec94f2124433a22025-08-20T02:48:05ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-02-0125394610.3390/s25030946A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise RatioHanxu Ma0Shunda Qiao1Ying He2Yufei Ma3National Key Laboratory of Laser Spatial Information, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Laser Spatial Information, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Laser Spatial Information, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Laser Spatial Information, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, ChinaA highly sensitive light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES) sensor employing a charge amplifier (CA) is reported for the first time in this invited paper. CA has the merits of high input impedance and strong anti-interference ability. The usually used transimpedance amplifier (TA) and voltage amplifier (VA) were also studied under the same conditions for comparison. A standard commercial quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a resonant frequency of approximately 32.76 kHz was used as the photothermal signal transducer. Methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) was used as the target gas in these sensors for performance verification. Compared to the TA-LITES sensor and VA-LITES sensor, the reported CA-LITES sensor shows improvements of 1.83 times and 5.28 times in the minimum detection limit (MDL), respectively. When compared to the LITES sensor without an amplifier (WA-LITES), the MDL has a 19.96-fold improvement. After further optimizing the gain of the CA, the MDL of the CA-LITES sensor was calculated as 2.42 ppm, which further improved the performance of the MDL by 30.3 times compared to the WA-LITES. Additionally, long-term stability is analyzed using Allan deviation analysis. When the average time of the sensor system is increased to 50 s, the MDL of the CA-LITES sensor system can be improved to 0.58 ppm.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/3/946methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) detectionlight-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES)quartz tuning fork (QTF)charge amplifierminimum detection limit (MDL)
spellingShingle Hanxu Ma
Shunda Qiao
Ying He
Yufei Ma
A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Sensors
methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) detection
light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES)
quartz tuning fork (QTF)
charge amplifier
minimum detection limit (MDL)
title A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
title_full A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
title_fullStr A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
title_full_unstemmed A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
title_short A Highly Sensitive Light-Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy Sensor Using a Charge Amplifier to Improve the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
title_sort highly sensitive light induced thermoelastic spectroscopy sensor using a charge amplifier to improve the signal to noise ratio
topic methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) detection
light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES)
quartz tuning fork (QTF)
charge amplifier
minimum detection limit (MDL)
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/3/946
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