TITLE: Gas Sensor Technologies for Automotive Applications.

SPEAKER: Dr. Margherita Zanini,

Today's cars and trucks need to meet increasingly stringent government standards for fuel economy, emissions, and diagnostics, while satisfying at the same time growing customer expectations for safety, performance, and convenience. To meet these demands, modern power trains rely heavily on electronics and sensors which form a sophisticated nervous system in the vehicle. A good example is the stoichiometric gasoline engine management system that has relied for more than twenty years on the electrochemical exhaust-gas-oxygen sensor to optimize emissions, fuel economy and driveability. The same device is also now used for on-board monitoring of the catalytic converter. However, the need for greater fuel efficiency favors a wider utilization of diesel and lean burn engines that require the implementation of new exhaust aftertreatment methods and engine controllers. Some of these systems may require new on-board exhaust gas sensors, capable of detecting concentrations of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen between 10 to 1000 ppm. These devices need to survive in the harsh exhaust gas environment without needing recalibration for a life span equivalent to driving for 150,000 miles. Choosing a specific sensor technology is often an optimization process between device functionality, reliability, packaging, and cost that requires expertise from several fields, including physics, chemistry, and engineering.