PFI-RP: Portable integrated photonic micro-gas chromatography system for rapid gas analysis

创新-研究伙伴关系(PFI-RP)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于开发下一代便携式和可穿戴气体分析设备，该设备将在医疗保健、工业和工作场所安全以及国防和国家安全方面发挥重要作用。现实世界中的气体样本通常含有数十到数百种挥发性有机化合物。大多数气体传感器要么缺乏检测的特异性，要么只对特定的气体做出响应，这使得从复杂的背景中检测特定的气体变得困难。尽管在过去20年中，便携式气相色谱在开发功能强大的便携式和可穿戴式气体分析设备方面显示出巨大的潜力，但在紧凑、高度集成和成本效益高的平台上实现有效的分离和快速检测以进行有效的气体分析仍然是一个巨大的挑战。建议的技术提供了前所未有的气体分析速度、分离能力、灵敏度、超紧凑的尺寸和系统的可扩展性。一旦成功商业化，该技术有望将研究实验室中的强大仪器转变为易于被公众接受和使用的微型传感器，在医疗保健、环境、工业以及国防和安全方面具有广泛的应用。该项目旨在开发一种紧凑、便携的带有光子集成电路的片上GC系统，用于快速、全面的挥发性有机化合物气体分析。GC-PIC系统结合了芯片上的纳米光子传感器阵列和高纵横比微制造硅GC柱中的高效蒸汽分离。改造后的亚表面光谱仪被集成用于片上光学检测。该项目解决了不同材料/器件技术的协同集成方面的关键挑战，以最大限度地减少系统占用空间，提高性能可靠性和可重复性，并将技术从实验室过渡到商业化。这项拟议工作的智力价值在于克服了光学、材料、微制造、传感、制造、信号处理和缩放接口的各种技术挑战，并展示了GC-PIC原型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 Partnerships for Innovation – Research The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project lies in the development of the next-generation portable and wearable gas analysis device that will play an important role in healthcare, industrial and workplace safety, and defense and national security. Real-world gas samples typically contain tens to hundreds of volatile organic compounds. Majority of gas sensors either lack the detection specificity or only respond to specific gases, which makes it challenging to detect specific gases from a complex background. Although advancement in portable gas chromatography in the past 20 years demonstrates great potential in the development of powerful portable and wearable gas analysis devices, it remains a grand challenge to achieve efficient separation and rapid detection for effective gas analysis in a compact, highly integrated, and cost-effective platform. The proposed technology provides unprecedented gas analysis speed, separation capability, sensitivity, ultra-compact size, and system scalability. Upon successful commercialization, the technology is envisioned to transform a powerful instrument in research labs to miniaturized sensors easily accepted and accessible by the general public with broad applications in healthcare, environment, industry, and national defense and security. The proposed project is to develop a compact and portable on-chip GC system with photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for rapid and comprehensive volatile organic compounds gas analysis. The GC-PIC system combines on-chip nanophotonic sensor arrays and efficient vapor separation occurring in high-aspect ratio microfabricated Si GC columns. A reconstructive metasurface spectrometer is integrated for on-chip optical detection. The project addresses critical challenges in synergistic integration of different material/device technologies to minimize the system footprint, increase performance reliability and repeatability, and transition the technology from the lab to commercialization. The intellectual merit of the proposed work lies in overcoming various technical challenges at the interface of optics, materials, microfabrication, sensing, manufacturing, signal processing, and scaling and to demonstrate a GC-PIC prototype.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.