MIT creates tiny gas sensor
Published: Jan. 14, 2008 at 10:10 AM
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers are developing a tiny sensor that can detect minute amounts of gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said they have taken the common techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and shrunk them to fit into a device the size of a computer mouse. Eventually, the team, led by MIT Professor Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande, plans to build a detector about the size of a matchbox.
"Everything we're doing has been done on a macro scale. We are just scaling it down," said Akinwande, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Akinwande, MIT research scientist Luis Velasquez-Garcia and colleagues from the University of Cambridge, the University of Texas at Dallas, Clean Earth Technology Inc. and the Raytheon Co. planned to present their work during the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems 2008 conference this week in Tucson.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said they have taken the common techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and shrunk them to fit into a device the size of a computer mouse. Eventually, the team, led by MIT Professor Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande, plans to build a detector about the size of a matchbox.
"Everything we're doing has been done on a macro scale. We are just scaling it down," said Akinwande, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Akinwande, MIT research scientist Luis Velasquez-Garcia and colleagues from the University of Cambridge, the University of Texas at Dallas, Clean Earth Technology Inc. and the Raytheon Co. planned to present their work during the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems 2008 conference this week in Tucson.
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This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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