The sensors consist of four overlapping, screen-printed thick films built on a ceramic substrate, with an incorporated platinum heating element built on the reverse side from the sensor. The first film, a nickel metal oxide layer, provides a reference source of ions for the sensing device. This is followed by a sandwich of two platinum catalytic electrode layers separated by a tungsten-stabilized bismuth oxide solid electrolyte layer. This associates a unique current-voltage profile with each gas species exposed to the sensor. This profile is digitally transformed into a signature, and computational neural networks process the signature and train the sensor support electronics to identify and quantify the gas or mixture.
Signal processing takes only milliseconds to complete.
Status First patent was secured in 1995. The prototype device was used successfully in industrial flue and stacktests in 1995. That work began developing the device's potential for CH 2 O and NH 3 detection. Work to tailor that response is continuing. Internal effort has led to the development of a growing family of cermet microsensors for gases and humidity.