Flexible Logic for Autonomous Gas sensing (FLAGS)

全球工业安全标准的收紧，再加上发展中国家大规模的经济和工业增长，以及高密度城市空气污染风险的增加，大大增加了对低成本监测我们呼吸的空气的需求，以确保安全和健康。目前的气体探测器满足法律要求，但其成本限制了广泛使用，特别是在第三世界，因此市场上存在很大空白。目前的PCB和硅芯片解决方案无法打破成本障碍，特别是当传感器本身的多部分和复杂组装结合在一起时。因此，需要进行彻底的反思。混合塑料电子和专用硅芯片以及集成气体传感器代表了一种解决方案，现在是可能的，并且将通过结合聚合物电子公司，气体探测器公司和专用硅芯片供应商的知识，在领先的学术团体的支持下开发。这种新系统将在设计上带来根本性的新变化，其成本优势将使该产品最初在工业/采矿安全市场上得到更广泛的接受。在这种低成本气体探测器成功的基础上，进一步的发展将导致一系列的个人安全监测器、空气质量卡和国土安全/第一反应保护报警器。该产品的成功和所生产产品的采用将导致全球许多产业工人的安全和工作条件的实质性改善，从长远来看，也可能通过一般环境监测对一般人群产生影响。

Tightening industrial safety standards across the globe combined with large scale economic and industrial growth in the developing world and increasing risks from air pollution in higher density cities has greatly increased the demand for low cost monitoring of the air we breathe for both safety and good health. Current gas detectors fulfill the legal requirements, but at a cost that limits widespread use, especially in the third world, there is therefore a significant gap in the market. The cost barrier cannot be broken with current PCB and silicon chip solutions, especially when combined with the multi-part and complex assembly of the sensors themselves. A radical rethink is therefore required. Hybrid plastic electronics and dedicated silicon chips along with integrated gas sensors represent a solution that is now possible and will be developed by combining the knowledge of a polymer electronics company, a gas detector company and dedicated silicon chip suppliers with the support of a leading academic group. This new system will offer a radical new change in design whose cost advantages will allow a wider acceptance of the product initially in the industrial/mining safety market. Further development building on the success of this low cost gas detector would then lead to a family of personal safety monitors, air quality cards and homeland security/ first responder protection alarms. The success of this product and adoption of the products produced will lead to a substantial improvement in the safety and work conditions of many industrial workers across the globe and in the long term could also have an impact on the general population through general environmental monitoring.