A NOVEL MINIATURE ZIRCONIA GAS SENSOR WITH PSEUDO-REFERENCE .3. SIMPLE IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE DETERMINATION OF AIR-TO-FUEL RATIO

A novel mode of operation of a double-chamber zirconia oxygen sensor i s presented. A pseudo-reference gas was generated in one chamber of th e sensor to pin the potentials of the electrodes acting to pump oxygen to or from the other chamber. The circuitry was simple and readily im plemented. The sensor was tested in the flue of a gas-burning system a nd shown to provide an output which enabled the normalized air-to-fuel ratio, lambda, to be measured over the range 0.7 < lambda < 1.7. The characteristics are discussed from a theoretical standpoint.