Send til en ven   Udskriv15/6 2010 kl. 14:41
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Chipsensor bruges til gasdetektion

Imec og Holst Centre har udviklet en low-power gas sensorchip, der kan bruges i forbindelse med opbygning af autonome trådløse sensorer (in english).

Imec and Holst Centre have developed very sensitive integrated sensing elements  for gas detection. The polymer-coated microbridges in high-density arrays can detect ppm-level concentrations of vapors using on-chip integrated read-out techniques.

The demonstrated technology is very  suitable for miniaturization of electronic nose devices thanks to the low power consumption (<1 mW/bridge) and small form factor.

Wireless sensor nodes that can chemically detect gaseous compounds are rapidly gaining interest from markets such as food monitoring,  healthcare and safety. One of the main gas sensing approaches in uncontrolled environments is the identification of vapors ('smells')  using multiple sensing elements ('receptors'), in a system that is often referred to as an 'electronic nose' or 'e-nose'.


An accurate e-nose requires small, integrated, low-power detectors with individually tuned chemical coatings. Current solutions, like chemi-resistors or quartz crystals are however not scalable or power-efficient enough to build low-power small form factor e-noses.

Imec and Holst Centre have developed a new generation of microbridges with embedded individual piezoelectric 'shakers' in a high-density array  with very high fabrication yield. The novel design allows for rapid coating of a range of absorbents on individual microbridges using  commercial inkjet printing technology.

The suspended structures vibrate  individually, and changes in their modes of vibration (resonances) are  monitored as an indication of vapor absorption in their coatings. Due to  the very high length-to-thickness ratio of the microbridges, imec and  Holst Centre’s novel gas sensor chip has a high sensitivity to low-concentration vapors. Moreover, by implementing integrated piezoelectric read-out schemes, ultra-low power operation could be demonstrated.

Current work is ongoing to integrate the structures with low-power analog read-out circuits and to demonstrate simultaneous measurements  from multiple structures. This truly low-power miniaturized implementation of an e-nose technology can be used in current  applications such as wine and cheese monitoring, but could in the future
also help sniff-out human conditions such as asthma, lung cancer, and kidney diseases.

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