SBIR Phase I: Point-of-Use MEMS Gas Analyzer

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一个具有成本效益，用户友好，高性能的微系统，适用于现场和现场气体分析应用。天然气分析是一个成熟但仍在增长的数十亿美元的全球市场。拟议的产品可以对多个行业和学科产生重大影响，包括食品加工和安全，环境监测，国土安全和生物医学诊断。它将为不同的客户提供以下重要优势：具有高性能的近实时气体分析速度，现场和现场使用的便携性和鲁棒性，购买和维护成本低，易于使用，以及不同应用的多功能性。此外，在过程和质量控制中使用拟议的微系统可以帮助提高生产率，同时节省成本，并且在脆弱环境中自动监测有害气体可以帮助保护工人和公众。拟议项目将是一个用于使用点气体分析的模块化微系统的概念验证研究。传统的气体分析系统体积庞大、资源和能量密集、耗时，并且购买、操作和维护昂贵。对挥发性有机化合物和其他气相物质的现场和现场测试的需求不断增加，这就要求开发能够克服这些主要限制的小型化气体分析仪。然而，存在与这样的系统集成和仪器自动化相关联的重大技术挑战，其传统上导致对分析能力/性能的重大损害。所提出的解决方案是一个模块化微系统，以灵活和可扩展的形式集成了多功能高性能微流体/传感器芯片，适用于大规模生产和多功能应用。在第一阶段，不同的芯片将被制造和组装成一个测试系统，以研究模块化设计的技术可行性。商业原型将在第二阶段开发。成功开发拟议产品将为解决涉及气体分析的各种市场中未满足的需求提供机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the development of a cost-effective, user-friendly, high-performance microsystem suitable for in-field and on-site gas analysis applications. Gas analyses are a mature but still growing multi-billion dollar global market. The proposed product can have significant impact across multiple industries and disciplines, including food processing and safety, environmental monitoring, homeland security, and biomedical diagnostics. It will provide the following important benefits to diverse customers: speed for near-real time gas analysis with high performance, portability and robustness for in-field and on-site uses, low cost to purchase and maintain, ease to use, and versatility for different applications. Additionally, employment of the proposed microsystem in process and quality controls can help improve productivity while saving costs, and autonomously monitoring hazardous gases in vulnerable environments can help protect workers and the public. The proposed project will be a proof-of-concept study on a modular microsystem for point-of-use gas analyses. Conventional gas analysis systems are bulky, resource and energy intensive, time consuming, and expensive to purchase, operate, and maintain. Increasing demands for in-field and on-site testing of volatile organic compounds and other gas phase species call for the development of a miniaturized gas analyzer capable of overcoming these major limitations. However, there are significant technical challenges associated with such system integrations and instrument miniaturizations, which traditionally result in significant compromises to the analytical capability/performance. The proposed solution is a modular microsystem integrating multifunctional high-performance microfluidic/sensor chips in a flexible and expandable format that is suitable for mass production and versatile applications. In Phase I, different chips will be fabricated and assembled into a testing system to investigate the technical feasibility of modular design. A commercial prototype will be developed in Phase II. Successful development of the proposed product will provide opportunities to address unmet needs in a variety of markets involving gas analyses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.