Dr. Joe Stetter
President & CTO, KWJ Engineering
November 15, 2016 | 12:00 to 01:00 | 490 Cory Hall
Host: Michael Cable
KWJ and partner SPEC-Sensors LLC have fabricated a family of miniature, yet high-performance, Screen Printed Electro-Chemical [SPEC] gas sensors for air quality (indoor and outdoor) and wearable personal exposure monitoring. We have advanced gas sensor technology to the point where we are able to bridge the cost-performance-gap. New devices in distributed high volume environmental and wearable markets using SPEC sensors are appearing. Sensing in-, on-, and around-the-body is challenging. Combining the best of MEMS for energy-related gases and Printed Plastic [PP-MEMS] approaches enables SPEC to shrink size and cost while maintaining and even improving performance features. Typical publications focus on advancing one or more of the performance attributes of a device. In industry, the focus is not on the device but the application, and the ability to advance all of the mission critical performance attributes simultaneously.
The newest devices are enabled by combining printed electronics manufacturing and synergistic semiconductor fabrication approaches. SPEC printing on flexible and ceramic materials with new nano-electro-catalysts for gas sensing allows us to create disruptive sensor platforms for monitoring many important gases including: CO, alcohol, O2, O3, NO, NO2, SO2, H2S, Cl2, and H2 at health, safety, and environmentally significant levels [ppb to ppm] that are useful in the field. Our KWJ MEMS sensors address energy related gases including H2, HC fuels, and CO2. Together, these two platforms [MEMS and PP-MEMS] address the vast majority [>90%] of commercial, consumer, medical, industrial, and environmental gas markets.
The WHO has reported more than 5 million deaths per year from air pollution worldwide and air quality is the 4th largest contributor to the earth’s human disease burden. One cannot control or avoid something that cannot be seen or measured and sensors for breath and air quality are our window to understanding and mitigation of adverse human impacts. IoT networks for air quality can start a revolution to arrest or even reverse climate change for the benefit of everyone everywhere. Economic drivers for deployment of billions of low cost sensors are increasingly the topic of lively debate as is the technology for the required widespread low cost disruptive air quality monitors. Personal health protection and smart cities drive wearable technology for air quality and breathe parameters. These co-emerging factors of increased need, available sensor platforms AND availability of high-volume low cost miniature gas sensors combine to enable the deployment of billions of sensors for environmental awareness and human health and safety and sport as well disaster relief situations.
www.kwjengineering.com
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