PFI-RP: Portable integrated photonic micro-gas chromatography system for rapid gas analysis

University Of Texas At Arlington, Arlington TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project lies in the development of the next-generation portable and wearable gas analysis device that will play an important role in healthcare, industrial and workplace safety, and defense and national security. Real-world gas samples typically contain tens to hundreds of volatile organic compounds. Majority of gas sensors either lack the detection specificity or only respond to specific gases, which makes it challenging to detect specific gases from a complex background. Although advancement in portable gas chromatography in the past 20 years demonstrates great potential in the development of powerful portable and wearable gas analysis devices, it remains a grand challenge to achieve efficient separation and rapid detection for effective gas analysis in a compact, highly integrated, and cost-effective platform. The proposed technology provides unprecedented gas analysis speed, separation capability, sensitivity, ultra-compact size, and system scalability. Upon successful commercialization, the technology is envisioned to transform a powerful instrument in research labs to miniaturized sensors easily accepted and accessible by the general public with broad applications in healthcare, environment, industry, and national defense and security. The proposed project is to develop a compact and portable on-chip GC system with photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for rapid and comprehensive volatile organic compounds gas analysis. The GC-PIC system combines on-chip nanophotonic sensor arrays and efficient vapor separation occurring in high-aspect ratio microfabricated Si GC columns. A reconstructive metasurface spectrometer is integrated for on-chip optical detection. The project addresses critical challenges in synergistic integration of different material/device technologies to minimize the system footprint, increase performance reliability and repeatability, and transition the technology from the lab to commercialization. The intellectual merit of the proposed work lies in overcoming various technical challenges at the interface of optics, materials, microfabrication, sensing, manufacturing, signal processing, and scaling and to demonstrate a GC-PIC prototype. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.