SBIR-STTR Award

As a result of the Iraqi conflict, it is now commonly accepted that an increasing number of Third World countries either posses or are developing the capability to produce chemical weapons. This increasing weapons threat necessitates the development of highly sensitive and selective detection concepts that are small for portability, low power consumption for extended battery operation, simple to operate for use by combat troops and field upgradable as new chemical threats are identified. Using our current off-the-shelf commercial surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor assemblies we plan to investigate the feasibility of dramatically reducing the size of our current hardware and to develop a design for a SAW array chemical sensor system to be used as a personnel monitor. The envisioned configuration of the partially functioning form factored prototype developed in this effort would be a self contained battery operated system with our current microcontroller hardware/software to control sample acquisition, data collection and pattern recognition analysis of the data.

As a result of the Iraqi conflict, it is now commonly accepted that an increasing number of Third World countries either possess or are developing the capability to produce chemical weapons. This increasing weapons threat necessitates the development of highly sensitive and selective detection concepts that are small for portability, low power consumption for extended battery operation, simple to operate for use by combat troops and field upgradable as new chemical threats are identified. In this Phase II effort we plan to combine the experience and results of two concurrent Phase I efforts and develop an individual vapor detector (IVD) based on an array of SAW resonator chemical microsensors. This dual program approach provides the necessary synergism to develop an IVD rapidly, with minimal cost and low technical risk all within the constraints of a Phase II SBIR program. The primary technical objective of the proposed Phase II program is to develop technology satisfying as many of the requirements of the TAF (USAF 004-085)I-H, SORD for an Individual Vapor Detector (IVD) as possible within the scope and funds of a Phase II contract. An overall modular system design approach will be used to assure the IVD can be used as the detection module in the Aircraft Interior Detection System (AIDETS). The envisioned design concept of the IVD is a self-contained battery operated system with a highly efficient 32 bit microcontroller to control sample acquisition, data collection and pattern recognition analysis of the data.