Long-Term Outdoor Reliability Assessment of a Wireless Unit for Air-Quality Monitoring Based on Nanostructured Films Integrated on Micromachined Platforms

Sensors

Matteo Leccardi¹  Massimiliano Decarli²  Leandro Lorenzelli²  Paolo Milani⁴  Petteri Mettala³  Risto Orava³ 

[1] Tethis spa, via Russoli 3, Milano 20143, Italy; E-Mail:;Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), via Sommarive 18, Povo (Trento) 38123, Italy; E-Mails:;Sensor Center Ltd.—Anturikeskus Oy, Pakkalankuja 5, Vantaa 01510, Finland; E-Mails:;CIMAINA and Physics Department of University of Milan, via Celoria 16, Milano 20133, Italy; E-Mail:

关键词: gas sensors;    metal-oxides;    nanomaterials;    micromachining;    air monitoring;    wireless network;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s120608176

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We have fabricated and tested in long-term field operating conditions a wireless unit for outdoor air quality monitoring. The unit is equipped with two multiparametric sensors, one miniaturized thermo-hygrometer, front-end analogical and digital electronics, and an IEEE 802.15.4 based module for wireless data transmission. Micromachined platforms were functionalized with nanoporous metal-oxides to obtain multiparametric sensors, hosting gas-sensitive, anemometric and temperature transducers. Nanoporous metal-oxide layer was directly deposited on gas sensing regions of micromachined platform batches by hard-mask patterned supersonic cluster beam deposition. An outdoor, roadside experiment was arranged in downtown Milan (Italy), where one wireless sensing unit was continuously operated side by side with standard gas chromatographic instrumentation for air quality measurements. By means of a router PC, data from sensing unit and other instrumentation were collected, merged, and sent to a remote data storage server, through an UMTS device. The whole-system robustness as well as sensor dataset characteristics were continuously characterized over a run-time period of 18 months.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.