Discrimination of VOCs with e-nose consisting of a single MEMS sensor using lightweight deep learning model based on SqueezeNet

The detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has numerous applications in environmental monitoring and biomedicine. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors are widely used in gas detection due to their simple structure, low fabrication cost, and fast response speed. However, MOS gas sensors have broad-spectrum responsiveness to VOCs, making selectivity a challenge. The most commonly used method to obtain selectivity is the E-nose system consisting of multiple sensors. However, the size of E-noses has increased due to the number of sensors with high power consumption and complicated signal processing. In recent years, deep learning has flourished, allowing for accurate discrimination of VOCs and concentration prediction using E-nose consisting of a single sensor. This method significantly reduces power consumption and facilitates portable applications. In this work, we synthesize SnO2-ZnO composite oxide and fabricate a E-nose consisting of a single MEMS gas sensor. The response performance of the E-nose to VOCs is stable with a high output signal-noise ratio (SNR). We design a lightweight deep learning model based on SqueezeNet and train it using transfer learning. Linear regression is used to predict the concentration of VOCs. Our work achieves accurate identification and low-error concentration prediction of VOCs, which is valuable for subsequent portable VOC detection systems. [Display omitted] •The e-nose system consists of a single MEMS gas sensor, resulting in low power consumption and simple data processing.•The sensing performances of SnO2-ZnO are excellent, including high response magnitude, rapid response and recovery, etc.•Lightweight deep learning model based on SqueezeNet is used for gas discrimination, aiming for portable applications.•Transfer learning is utilized to speed up the training process and obtain a higher accuracy.