MultiTran - Measurement of the permeability of ultra-high performance barrier layers

高性能阻隔层可防止大气中的氧气和水分沿着二氧化碳和乙烯等其他物质进入/离开它们所保护的材料和设备。用于鉴定这种阻隔层的分析仪器是农业增长市场，复合年增长率（CAGR）> 20%，预计到2021年将超过1.4亿英镑。市场分为食品和药品等已建立的专业包装市场，以GDP增长率+5%增长，以及复合年增长率> 50%的新兴塑料电子市场。为了实现所需的设备寿命>10年，需要超高性能的阻隔层，其水蒸气透过率（WVTR）为1.0 × 10-6 g/m2/天。这样的传输速率是100倍以下，可测量与商用仪器今天。我们计划展示一种仪器，可以测量WVTR所需的水平，并最终进入新兴的塑料电子市场的这一未满足的需求。该技术基于一种创新的新型质谱仪电离源，使用等离子体电离感兴趣的物种，并受到正在申请的专利的保护。我们将使用国家物理实验室（NPL）提供的校准样品和潜在客户提供的样品来演示仪器的性能。质谱仪同时测量多个物种的独特能力也将允许我们仪器的一个单元取代目前在专业包装市场上使用的多个单一物种测量仪器。

High performance barrier layers prevent the passage of atmospheric oxygen and moisture,along with other species such as carbon dioxide and ethylene, to/from the materials anddevices they protect. The analytical instrumentation used to qualify such barrier layers is agrowth market with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of >20%and projected to be>£140 million by 2021. The market divides between the established speciality packagingmarket for foods and pharmaceuticals etc. growing at GDP rates +5% and the emergingplastic electronics markets with a CAGR of >50%. To achieve the required device lifetimes of>10 years requires ultra-high performance barrier layers with water vapour transmission rates(WVTR) of 1.0 10-6 g/m2/day. Such transmission rates are 100x below that measureable withcommercially available instrumentation today.We plan to demonstrate an instrument that can measure WVTR to the levels required andultimately tap into this unmet need of the emerging plastic electronics market. The techniqueis based on an innovative new type of mass spectrometer ionisation source using plasma toionise the species of interest and is protected by a pending patent application. We willdemonstrate the performance of the instrument using both calibrated samples obtainedthrough the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and samples from prospective customers.The unique ability of a mass spectrometer to measure multiple species simultaneously willalso allow a single unit of our instrument to replace multiple single species measurementinstruments currently being used throughout the speciality packaging market.