Array of chemiresistors for single input multiple output (SIMO) variation-tolerant all printed gas sensor

Abstract The use of printed electronics in conjunction with nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) proves to be an effective means for simple, efficient and cost-effective chemical and bio sensing applications due to their high surface area to volume ratio and other attractive properties. However, successful commercial implementation of nanosensors has been elusive due to inconsistent performance across the sensors, which translates to decreased credibility and reproducibility. Furthermore, the process uniformity in printed electronics is inferior to solid-state microfabrication technology as printed sensors suffer from material and process-induced variability at the current level of maturity. In order to take advantage of the promise of nanotechnology driven sensors, we herein propose an array of chemiresistors formed on one substrate as a single input multiple output (SIMO) sensor. Then, individual responses from sub-sensors in a SIMO sensor are aggregated and result in a statistical mean response to overcome variability issues. Random sampling was performed in this work from a sufficiently large population of CNT-based sub-sensors to define a representative set whose behavior closely mimics a larger array. The convergence of the population mean is proven from randomly chosen samples beyond a certain number of sub-sensors. An optimal strategy including sensor layout and power consumption is provided based on the resulting data analysis.