Chemical Microsensor and Micro-Instrument Technology at Sandia National Laboratories
- Sandia National Laboratories
Important factors in the application of chemical sensing technology to space applications are low mass, small size, and low power. All of these attributes are enabled by the application of MEMS and micro-fabrication technology to chemical sensing. Several Sandia projects that apply these technologies to the development of new chemical sensing capabilities with the potential for space applications will be described. The Polychromator project is a joint project with Honeywell and MIT to develop an electrically programmable diffraction grating that can be programmed to synthesize the spectra of molecules. This grating will be used as the reference cell in a gas correlation radiometer to enable remote chemical detection of most chemical species. Another area of research where micro-fabrication is having a large impact is the development of a lab on a chip. Sandia's efforts to develop the {mu}ChemLab{trademark} will be described including the development of microfabricated pre-concentrators, chromatographic columns, and detectors. Chemical sensors are evolving in the direction of sensor arrays with pattern recognition methods applied to interpret the pattern of response. Sandia's development of micro-fabricated chemiresistor arrays and the VERI pattern recognition technology to interpret the sensor response will be described.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US); Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 5048
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-0713C
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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