The objective of this thesis was to investigate a new device called the charge-flow transistor (CFT) and its applications for fire detection and gas sensing. A simpler device, the lock-and-key, was first used to determine the utility of various thin-film polymers as possible sensing materials. Two polymers, PFI and PSB, were found to be particularly suitable for fire detection. One polymer, PAPA, was found to be promising as a relative humidity sensor.nThe charge-flow capacitor was examined next. This structure is basically a parallel-plate capacitor with a polymer-filled gap in the metallic top electrode. Its behavior was successfully modeled as an RC transmission line, and it demonstrated the basic principle of CFT operation in an easy-to-fabricate device structure.
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