Very often, high-temperature operated gas sensors are cross-sensitive to oxygen and/or they cannot be operated in oxygen-deficient (rich) atmospheres. For instance, some metal oxides like Ga(2)O(3) or doped SrTiO(3) are excellent materials for conductometric hydrocarbon detection in the rough atmosphere of automotive exhausts, but have to be operated preferably at a constant oxygen concentration. We propose a modular sensor platform that combines a conductometric two-sensor-setup with an electrochemical pumping cell made of YSZ to establish a constant oxygen concentration in the ambient of the conductometric sensor film. In this paper, the platform is introduced, the two-sensor-setup is integrated into this new design, and sensing performance is characterized. Such a platform can be used for other sensor principles as well.
Keywords: electrochemical pumping cell; exhaust gas sensor; gallium oxide; hydrocarbon exhaust gas sensor; strontium titanate.