System Approach in Boosting Sensitivity, Selectivity, and Stability of Modern Environmental and Industrial Gas sensors to Deliver Broad Societal Impact
ABSTRACT
Gas sensors were designed last century as single-output devices to detect toxic or flammable gases at dangerous levels and saved thousands of lives in industrial and residential environments. Over the years of development, these sensors have become miniaturized but largely retain their single-output designs that limit their ability to accurately detect low-level pollutants and to provide stability in complex environments. These limitations of existing sensors hinder their applications in urban, indoor, and biomedical fields.
To reach modern applications and gas-detection markets, our and other teams worldwide focus on the “3S” system approach – designing next generation gas sensors with their boosted sensitivity, selectivity, and stability. The next generation gas sensors integrates the mathematics behind the outstanding levels of performance of traditional analytical instruments with innovations in MEMS hardware and edge-based data analytics. The next generation sensors are focused on two system design improvements to expand the dimensionality of sensor response from single-output responses as done in existing gas sensors to muti-output responses to achieve “3S” system improvements. First, design of a physical transducer is extended to operate with independent variables (e.g. excitation frequency, electrical bias, wavelength). Second, variable excitation conditions are applied to a sensing material (e.g. operation temperature, photoactivation, ultrasound, light-polarization). Such system improvements allow individual next-generation sensors to achieve multi-gas differentiation, quantification, and rejection against known and even unknown interferences, boost sensor sensitivity, and self-correct against drift. These advancements are becoming a reality without making fundamental changes to the current hardware, ensuring seamless compatibility with existing manufacturing.
BIOGRAPHY
Shiyao Shan is a Lead Engineer at GE Vernova Advanced Research Center, specializing in first or more-order sensor design, physical based data analytics and system integration of microelectronic devices. His interest spanned from innovative 3S sensor systems, technology maturation/commercialization transition to new organic/inorganic materials in sensing and renewable energy sector driven by a passion for sustainable environment.
Dr. Shan received B.S degree in analytical chemistry from Hunan University and a PhD from State University of New York at Binghamton, NY. He has published > 80 peer-review articles and holds several US or international patents in the field of sensor system and renewable energy.