Integrated Hydrogen-Sensing Amplifier With GaAs Schottky-Type Diode and InGaP–GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor

New hydrogen-sensing amplifiers are fabricated by integrating a GaAs Schottky-type hydrogen sensor and an InGaP-GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor. Sensing collector currents (I
_CN
and I
_CH
) reflecting to N
₂
and hydrogen-containing gases are employed as output signals in common-emitter characteristics. Gummel-plot sensing characteristics with testing gases as inputs show a high sensing-collector-current gain (I
_CH
/I
_CN
) of > 3000. When operating in standby mode for in situ long-term detection, power consumption is smaller than 0.4 ¿W. Furthermore, the room-temperature response time is 85 s for the integrated hydrogen-sensing amplifier fabricated with a bipolar-type structure.