Partner und Internationale Organisationen
(Englisch)
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PHILIPS, DAP (NL), UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN, IPC (D), MOTECH (D)
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Abstract
(Englisch)
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The PARFUM project is strongly application driven into two areas:
1. Domestic appliances with detection of gases such as VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), CO, NO2, SO2, O3 HCOH, CH4 for 'Pollution Air Cleaner' Application.
2. Quality control in food industry (detection of off-flavours for food packaging materials)
Thus, the objectives of the project were to propose smart micro-systems for gas and odour recognition which will be implemented in air cleaners and respectively odour recognition systems. Data processing and analysis techniques are of major importance in order to get reliable systems.
During this project, Microsens has worked on the development and the consolidation of the multi-sensor technology focusing on the feasibility of an industrial product. A first generation of multisensor has been developed and optimized in a second design version which has been manufactured for real application studies. The reliability of this multi-sensor device has been shown in terms of repeatability and stability. Moreover, the low thermal loss coefficient of the device (0.10 mW/°C), and the small size (2mmx3mm) are among the necessary specifications for the realization of cheap indoor air quality systems and portable odour recognition systems. CSEM has developed an ASIC to interface the multi-sensor. This ASIC have been successfully manufactured and tested. The use of a package including the ASIC and the multi-sensor will strongly simplify the integration of the multi-sensor chip in a system. The complete device will be suitable for approaching new markets. Moreover, the ASIC is also able to drive different types of mono-sensors, which can be considered as a flexible gas multi-sensing device for environmental and industrial measurements.
For domestics appliances, the results obtained at Philips show that the Microsens gas sensors are very efficient for the 'Air Cleaner for Smokers' application. This study is based on a comparison between Microsens microsensors and sensors available from major competitors. A follow-up is considered with Philips for this application. For 'Pollution Air Cleaner' application with very low detection limits in air as required by Philips, the feasibility has still to be proven to selectively distinguish very low concentration levels of pollutants (below 0.1 ppm for NO2, SO2 and O3).
Regarding the odour recognition system, important investigation have been carried out at the MoTech company and the Nestlé Research Center on different packaging specially prepared or coming from the production line. Comparison and correlation have been established between data coming from human sensory panels, the analytical measurements (gas chromatography and mass spectrometry), and an electronic nose (EN) using quartz microbalance sensors as well as metal oxide gas sensors (mono or multi-sensors). Very good correlation and discrimination have been obtained for typical packaging materials which make possible quality control using an EN. The way of a further cooperation between Microsens/MoTech/Nestec is discussed in order to propose a new concept of cheaper dedicated odour recognition system for process control, based on the know-how acquired during the project.
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