Towards the World’s Smallest Gravimetric Particulate Matter Sensor: A Miniaturized Virtual Impactor with a Folded Design

Sensors

Navpreet Singh¹  Mourad N. El-Gamal¹  Mohannad Y. Elsayed² 

[1] Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada;MEMS Vision International Inc., Montreal, QC H4P 2R9, Canada;

关键词: MEMS;    sensors;    particulate matter;    PM2.5;    3D printing;    virtual impactor;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s22051727

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The increasing air pollution across the globe has given rise to a global health crisis that is increasing at an alarming rate. Every year, millions of people lose their lives due to health risks caused by air pollutants. Hence, there is a pressing need for better solutions to accurately measure the amount of air pollution. This work is aimed at designing a highly compact, accurate, low-cost, self-resettable, and easy-to-use gravimetric-based particulate matter sensor solution for portable applications. Previous attempts have failed to realize true miniaturization, due to the size constraints of the virtual impactor needed—a mechanism that segregates the particulate matters based on their sizes. Our complete particulate matter sensor solution consists of three components (i) a piezoelectric resonating membrane, (ii) a virtual impactor, and (iii) a thermophoretic mechanism to reset the sensor. This paper presents a novel design of the virtual impactor, based on a folded configuration. This helps realize the entire system in a volume of 20 mm × 20 mm × 10 mm. We report here the design, working principles, fabrication, and experimental results of the virtual impactor.

【 授权许可】

Unknown