Technical Review: Interface Integrated Circuits for Metal-Oxide GAS Sensors

As the air quality becomes one of important factors in human life, interest in the development of good gas sensor systems is steadily increasing. Accordingly, the importance of the interface integrated circuit (IC) for metal-oxide gas sensors also increases. For the implementation of smart gas sensor systems, circuit designers need to consider several factors such as power consumption, detection range, size, and selectivity, simultaneously. In this paper, we review the operation principle and system parameters as well as state-of-the-art interface IC designs. We also summarize the limitations that current gas sensor interface ICs have, and suggest possible directions for the development of next-generation interface ICs.