STTR Phase I: Low Cost Integrated IR Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Gas Sensor

这项小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目建议联合开发一种紧凑型/便携式激光光谱微量气体传感器，该传感器基于最近在实验室中演示的石英增强光声光谱（QEPAS）。QEPAS使用低成本的石英音叉作为传感元件，提供对环境噪声的免疫，并允许使用非常小的气室（1cm3），这有利于便携式和敏感的微量气体点传感器的发展。第一阶段项目的目标是开发和测试一个原型QEPAS传感器，用于敏感测量大气氨（NH3），这是一种已知的颗粒物形成的前兆。灵敏度增强的QEPAS传感器将在实验室进行测试，并与将进行广泛表征的电子硬件一起集成到紧凑的光学系统中。提出的项目旨在解决高灵敏度红外痕量气体传感器商业化的限制，这些限制是高成本、大尺寸和缺乏便携性。QEPAS是一种模块化技术，能够测量许多重要的微量气体种类，这使得该仪器能够在没有商用仪器的情况下推广到更广泛的应用。考虑的潜在市场包括大气和污染监测，以及呼吸分析中的医疗诊断应用。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project proposes the joint development of a compact/portable laser spectroscopic trace gas sensor based on quartz-enhanced photo-acoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) recently demonstrated in the lab. QEPAS uses a low cost quartz tuning fork as the sensing element and provides immunity to environmental acoustic noise and enables the use of very small gas cells ( 1cm3), which facilitates the development of portable and sensitive trace gas point sensors. The objective of the Phase I project is to develop and test a prototype QEPAS sensor for sensitive measurement of atmospheric ammonia (NH3), a known precursor to the formation of particulate matter. The sensitivity enhanced QEPAS sensor will be tested in the lab and integrated into a compact optical system along with the electronics hardware that will undergo extensive characterization.The proposed project aims to address limitations to the commercialization of highly sensitive infrared trace gas sensors which are high costs, large sizes, and lack of portability. QEPAS is a modular technology and capable of measuring a number of important trace gas species, which enables marketing the instrument to a broader range of applications where no commercially available instrumentation exists. Potential markets to be considered include atmospheric and pollution monitoring, as well as medical diagnostic applications in breath analysis.