Design of a Multiple Cell Calorimeter and a Novel Thermopile Sensor

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将提供新技术来建造工业应用的实用热量计。量热法一直是生物学研究的有力工具。已经开发的应用程序解决了许多行业中的大量分析和生产问题，例如制药，食品加工，废物处理，环境监测，农业和生物技术。然而，由于缺乏负担得起的高通量仪器和适合测量生物样品的样品容器，这些仪器尚未得到广泛应用。在这种量热计的设计中，最重要的一个缺失元素是一个敏感的、廉价的热流传感器，它的输出信号足够大，可以用标准电路测量。Thermalytics公司建议设计和测试一种独特的热电堆传感器，以满足这一需求，并使用它来构建多细胞等温量热计原型。这项拟议的第一阶段工作还将纳入其他创新设计元素，这些元素将证明生产适合处理大量工业生物样品的相对低成本热量计的可行性。待开发的技术也可应用于其他类型的量热计，集成电路传感器可能在其他类型的热通量测量中证明是有用的。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will provide new technology to build practical calorimeters for industrial applications. Calorimetry has long been a powerful tool in biological research. Applications have been developed that solve a host of analytical and production problems in many industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food processing, waste treatment, environmental monitoring, agriculture, and biotechnology. However, these have not been widely applied because of the lack of affordable instrumentation with high throughput and sample containers suitable for measuring biological samples. The single most important missing element in the design of such a calorimeter is a sensitive, inexpensive heat flux sensor having an output signal large enough to be measured by standard circuitry. Thermalytics, Inc., proposes to design and test a unique thermopile sensor which would fill this need, and to use it to construct a multiple cell isothermal calorimeter prototype. This proposed Phase I effort will also incorporate other innovative design elements which will demonstrate the feasibility of producing relatively low-cost calorimeters suitable for processing large numbers of industrial biological samples. The technology to be developed could be also applied to other types of calorimeters, and the integrated circuit sensor may prove useful in other types of heat flux measurements.