SBIR Phase I: Miniaturized, Low-Power Monitor for Particulate Matter

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改善健康和拯救生命，同时解决每年超过10亿美元的市场机会。全球颗粒物空气污染造成的死亡人数几乎与癌症一样多，比疟疾和艾滋病加起来还要多。该项目的目标是一种廉价的、面向消费者市场的空气污染传感器，其性能可与成本数百至数千美元的实验室仪器相媲美。拟议中的技术具有重要的社会效益，因为它将有助于减轻环境、家庭和工作场所空气污染对健康的负面影响。拟议的项目通过研究新的颗粒物分析技术，为空气污染研究提供高灵敏度、便携式和低成本的监测仪，有助于科学知识和理解。它具有aa电池的外形，是唯一一款可以安装在亚马逊Echo或谷歌Nest等设备上的颗粒物空气污染传感器。该传感器的市场包括智能家居、智能城市、绿色建筑、汽车舱室监控、空气净化器、工业卫生等。拟议的项目将研究一种监测空气污染颗粒物的新型传感器。现有的空气污染监测仪价格昂贵，体积庞大，耗电量大。消费市场上的监测仪使用的光学技术只能提供污染水平的代理估计，无法检测直径小于100纳米的超细颗粒。这些超细颗粒物对健康构成严重威胁。这项工作的传感器采用热电泳沉积空气中的颗粒从样品流到声波谐振器，并确定通过测量一个持续的电子振荡器电路的频移沉积的质量。这项工作的监测器可以检测到从直径几微米到超细的颗粒，并提供了一个真实的污染质量浓度测量，这是公认的行业金标准。该提案的关键活动包括开发收集和分析颗粒物的创新技术，并提高传感器的稳定性和使用寿命。预期的技术成果包括监视器寿命的延长、检测水平的提高、可制造性的提高以及功耗的显著降低。将传感器与手机或其他无线设备连接，可以实现密集的时空无线空气质量测量。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve health and save lives while addressing a market opportunity of over a billion dollars per year. Worldwide particulate matter air pollution is responsible for nearly as many deaths as cancer, and more than malaria and AIDS combined. The goal of the project is an inexpensive, consumer market air pollution sensor that offers performance comparable to laboratory instruments that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. The proposed technology has important societal benefit as it will help mitigate the negative health effects of air pollution in the environment, home, and workplace. The proposed project contributes to scientific knowledge and understanding by investigating novel particulate matter analysis techniques and enabling a highly-sensitive, portable, and low-cost monitor for studies of air pollution. With the form-factor of a AA-battery, it is the only particulate matter air pollution sensor that can fit in devices like the Amazon Echo or Google Nest. Markets for the sensor include smart homes, smart cities, green buildings, automobile cabin monitoring, air purifiers, industrial hygiene, and others. The proposed project will investigate a novel sensor for monitoring particulate matter air pollution. Existing air pollution monitors are expensive, large, and power hungry. The monitors on the consumer market use optical techniques that provide only a proxy estimate of pollution levels and are unable to detect ultrafine particulates which have diameters smaller than 100 nanometers. These ultrafine particulates pose serious health risks. The sensor of this work employs thermophoretic deposition of airborne particulates from a sample stream onto an acoustic wave resonator, and determines the mass deposited by measuring the frequency shift of a sustaining electronic oscillator circuit. The monitor of this work detects particulates from a few microns in diameter to ultrafine, and provides a true mass concentration measurement of the pollution, which is acknowledged as the industry gold-standard. Key activities of the proposal include the development of innovative techniques to collect and analyze particulates and to improve the sensor stability and lifetime. Anticipated technical results include enhanced monitor longevity, improved level of detection, improved manufacturability, and a significant reduction in power consumption. Coupling the sensor to a cell-phone or other wireless device would enable dense temporal and spatial wireless air quality measurements.