Electronic Nose Technologies - Advances in Engineering, Integrating and Commercializing Novel Sensor Technologies

Overview

Significant advances are being made in the development of microfabricated microsensors and microsensor arrays for detecting gases and vapors. Producing practical and versatile instrumentation based on MEMS and monolithic IC sensor technologies will depend on ancillary components for sample collection, transfer, preconcentration and separation. The technical challenges are innumerable in designing, fabricating and interfacing with such components and optimizing their functional integration are topics of increasing importance. Also of critical interest are more efficient methods of data acquisition/management and analysis to coordinate system functions and interpret sensor responses for long-term reliability in terms of quality assurance and stability. Major topics to be covered in-depth include:

Science, Technology and Engineering Development of the Electronic Nose
Electronics Packaging,Reliability, and Quality Assurance of E-Nose and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Electronic Noses
Current and New Applications for Existing E-Nose Technology
Data Measurement and Management, Pattern Recognition and Electronic Neural Networks for E-Noses
Market Opportunities for Electronic Noses

With a focus on exploring basic science, technology, engineering, and the integration and implementation of micro and macro analytical set-ups to identify gas species, this exciting new conference provides industry, government and academic investigators a unique opportunity to come up to speed and capitalize on electronic nose technologies. We invite you to examine the enclosed agenda and register today to reserve your place!

Agenda

Thursday, October 26, 2000

8:00 Registration, Exhibit/Poster Set-up, Coffee and Danish

Science, Technology and Engineering Development of the Electronic Nose

9:00 Chairperson's Welcome and Opening Remarks
Rajeshuni Ramesham, Ph.D., Applications Engineering Group, Quality Assurance, Engineering Mission Assurance Directorate, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; California Institute of Technology

9:15 Support of Basic Research in Sensor/Electronic Nose Technologies
Steven L. Bernasek, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University; Program Officer, National Science Foundation
This presentation will provide an overview of National Science Foundation support of basic research in sensors and enabling science for electronic nose technologies.

9:45 Latest Developments in Electronic Nose Technology: Main Applications
Jean-Francois Chauvet, Director, Marketing, Alpha-M.O.S., France
Today, many industries rely on sensory panel and GC to assess the quality of a product. Both techniques have major drawbacks. Sensory panels can be subjective and GC is not fast and needs skilled people for the interpretation of the data. This is why there is a need for a fast, simple and objective technique: the electronic nose. Two technologies are used to create a fingerprint of a smell: a sensor array (in most cases using metal oxide sensors) or mass spectrometry (without GC column). The efficiency of each technology depends on the application. Sensors are more sensitive (can be used for QC of raw materials in food or cosmetics), and mass spectrometry is more selective (can avoid the effect of ethanol in finished products like spirits or beers). The market of the electronic nose is improving very quickly and moving towards QC after validation at an R&D level. Systems are becoming smaller and simpler... and cheaper for a better return on investment.

10:15 Exhibit/Poster Viewing and Refreshment Break

11:00 New Electrode Technologies Based on Inherently Conducting Polymers
Gordon G. Wallace, Ph.D., Professor, Intelligent Polymer Research Laboratory, University of Wollongong, Australia
The versatility of conducting polymer sensors has already been aptly demonstrated. Appropriate polymer compositions are capable of detecting small ionic species, metal ions and even proteins using recognition sites as simple as ion exchange to the more complex immunological systems. The sensitivity of the electronic properties of inherently conducting polymers to molecular interactions provides an excellent platform for development of a signal generation routine. It seems the last significant hurdle involves the development and implementation of practical routine sensor fabrication approaches that use inherently conducting polymers. We have recently investigated a number of approaches to this including screen printing and ink jet printing.

11:30 Selected Oral Poster Presentations

12:00 Luncheon Hosted by The Knowledge Foundation

Current and New Applications for Existing E-Nose Technology

1:25 Chairperson's Remarks
Margaret Amy Ryan, Ph.D., Senior Member, Engineering Staff, Principal Investigator of JPL Electronic Nose Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; California Institute of Technology
1:30 Solid-State Gas Sensing Array
Jiri (Art) Janata, Ph.D., Professor and Eminent
Scholar in Sensors and Instrumentation, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute
of Technology
Chemical sensors represent the fastest growing area of analytical instrumentation; more than 1000 papers are published every year, in all areas of applications. This demand for new information is driven by the availability of dedicated, inexpensive computational capacity and by the need to obtain rapid and precise information about our environment. Detection and monitoring of gases and vapors occupies a prominent position among chemical sensors. We have developed a small (6x4mm) generic solid state gas sensing array consisting of eight sensing modules and associated electronics. It measures changes of electronic properties of chemically selective layers as they interact with gases and vapors. Selective layers for detection of gases and vapors as diverse as H2, NH3, HCN, alcohols, tributyl phosphate, amines have been demonstrated. The choice of combination of selective layers and the supporting electronics are dictated by individual application. The sensor array is a generic platform that allows the user to apply the combination of selective layers to match the specific need.
The three main areas of the project are: * Fabrication and packaging of the array * Development of chemically selective layers * Conversion of responses into information
The possible applications of the gas sensing array are:
* Industrial process control * Occupational safety & health
* Military and security * Transportation * Medicine * Agriculture
* Food industry

2:00 Application Driven Improvements on Electronic Nose Technology
Jan Mitrovics, Executive Director, MOTech GmbH, Germany
Electronic nose technology is developing currently at a fast pace. New systems are characterized by enhanced performance, increased reliability and reduced cost. This talk will focus on recent developments in the field of chemical sensor technology, sensor systems and application specific instrumentation. New concepts include advanced user friendly algorithms, improvements on cross interference reduction, reproducibility and database transferability between systems.

2:30 Pico-1 Electronic Nose Based on Thin Film Sensors
Giorgio Sberveglieri, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Physics, INFM and University of Brescia, Italy
The Pico-1 Electronic Nose developed at the University of Brescia builds upon the thin film technology for producing reliable sensors. In particular, the SnO2 sensors are grown with the RGTO technique developed in Brescia. Dynamic as well as static headspace sampling can be used depending upon the type of matrix which releases the odor to be sensed. Considerable effort has been devoted to the data analysis: apart from traditional PCA plots, SIMCA and multiplayer perceptrons (MLP) and the solution of multi-class problems with hierarchical structures or decomposition in dichotomies have been investigated. Applications tackled in the Gas Sensor Lab range from food quality control (milk, cheeses, coffee, oil) to the detection of TNT or off-odors to the quantification of environmental pollutants.

3:00 Exhibit/Poster Viewing and Refreshment Break

3:45 The zNoseª: Commercial Application of a Quantitative Electronic Nose with Olfactory Images and Virtual Sensor Arrays
Edward J. Staples, Ph.D., Managing Director, Electronic Sensor Technology, LP
A new Electronic Nose, called the zNoseª (to distinguish it from sensor array types called eNoses), is rapidly being accepted as a measurement tool for odor measurements and quality control in many commercial fields. Unlike electronic noses based upon sensor arrays, the zNoseª is able to speciate and quantify the individual chemicals present in any smell, fragrance, vapor, or odor in 10 seconds with part per billion sensitivity. Simultaneously it is the only electronic nose to produce high-resolution visual olfactory images called VaporPrintsª and virtual chemical sensor arrays. The ability to perform over 700 measurements per day is providing commercial users with an electronic nose, which pays for itself in 30 days or less. To be successful in commercial applications like quality control of food & beverages it is crucial that electronic noses be able to speciate and quantify according to FDA methods. This paper will present just a few examples of successful commercial applications of zNoseª technology in the following areas: * Beer, wine, and distilled spirits * Milk and soymilk * Fruit and vegetables * Olive oil and vegetable fats * Cosmetics * Bacteria fermentation monitoring (E. Coli) * Interior and exterior automobile smells * Odors from animal factories
The zNoseª is fast (10 seconds), operates over a range of vapor concentrations spanning 8 order of magnitude, has ppb or better sensitivity, is simple to use, and maintains calibration over extended periods of time. The Electronic Nose has the ability to recognize as well as quantify many different and sometimes complex fragrances. This is achieved using pattern recognition from a distinctive visual fragrance pattern, called a VaporPrintª derived from a new integrating solid-state detector. Commercial product smells or fragrances typically contain multiple analytes with a clear relationship to each other. Using virtual chemical sensor arrays, the concentration of each chemical can be monitored and quality assessed.

4:15 Gas Analytical Gradient Microarrays for Intelligent Consumer Products
Joachim Goschnick, Ph.D., Head of Strategy Project ÒElectronic MicronosesÓ, Head of Research Group ÒGas Sensors & Surface AnalyticsÓ, Karlsruhe Research Center, Institute for Instrumental Analysis, Germany
Applications of gas analysis in consumer products demand appropriate electronic noses with continuous output. A special gas sensor microarray of thumbnail size has been developed based on metal oxide technology to meet an appropriate compromise between cheapness, low size and analytical power. The microarray is produced by simply partitioning a monolithic metal oxide layer with parallel electrode strips allowing cheap production. Novel gradient type differentiation of the sensor segments results in conductivity patterns as array output which allow good gas discrimination power, self-checks for reliability and online noise reduction. The present operational unit has the size of a beverage can. Further development aims to reach credit card format soon. Function and analytical performance will be discussed on the basis of results for some applications.

4:45 Success and Failures of the Electronic Nose in the Food Industry
W. James Harper, Ph.D., Professor, J. T. Parker Chair in Dairy Foods, Department of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University
The Electronic Nose has become a useful tool for quality control in the food industry. However, not all applications are successful. Greater success has been achieved with the use of head space sampling combined with the use of a mass spectrometer to provide data for pattern recognition. This approach has also provided, for the first time, a basis for understanding the chemical basis for aroma differentiation.

5:15 Close of Day One

Friday, October 27, 2000

8:15 Exhibit/Poster Viewing, Coffee and Danish

Data Measurement and Management, Pattern Recognition and Electronic Neural Networks for E-Noses

8:55 Chairperson's Remarks
H. Troy Nagle, Ph.D., M.D., P.E., Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University

9:00 Are Standards Needed for the Validation of E-Nose Measurements?
Pamela M. Chu, Ph.D., Research Chemist, Analytical Chemistry Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology
With the rapid advances in E-nose technologies, novel laboratory devices are becoming accepted measurement tools in the commercial world. This talk will describe current approaches for providing NIST reference materials and reference data for gas measurements and explore potential tools for addressing standards needed to further enable e-nose technologies.

9:30 E-Nose Calibration with Human Assessors
Chuck McGinley, P.E., Technical Director, St. Croix Sensory, Inc.
The need to calibrate electronic noses to human noses grows in importance as E-Nose technology continues to develop and gain acceptance for quality assurance, product development, and investigations. Many of the basic parameters of human olfaction can be duplicated using electronic nose technology. Qualifying an electronic nose often requires calibration and correlation with trained human assessors using practical steps and standard methods. This paper will present the basics of ÒOlfactomaticsÓ (human olfactory analysis), how the basics are duplicated with e-noses, and give practical examples of e-nose calibration.

10:00 Exhibit/Poster Viewing and Refreshment Break

10:45 Signal Conditioning and Preprocessing Issues for Electronic Nose Systems
H. Troy Nagle, Ph.D., M.D., P.E.
The accuracy of electronic nose systems can be limited by unwanted variations in the output signals from gas sensor arrays. Sensor baseline drift and humidity changes in a series of test samples can cause large variations in sensor output signals, masking VOC responses. This session will review methods to reduce undesirable signal components and to compress the quantity of stored data.

11:15 The Development of an Electronic Nose for
Fire Detection
Susan L. Rose-Pehrsson, Ph.D., Chemical Sensors and Environmental Monitoring Section, Chemical Dynamics and Diagnostics Branch, Naval Research Laboratory
An array of sensors each measuring different components of a fire with a probabilistic neural network is being used to detect shipboard fires. The multi-criteria approach offers faster response to hazards than commercial fire detectors with fewer false alarms. This paper will describe how variations in the sensor outputs and the training set composition affect the probabilities produced by the algorithm.

Electronics Packaging, Reliability, and Quality Assurance of E-Nose and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Electronic Noses

11:45 Packaging and Reliability of Electronic Noses for Space Applications
Rajeshuni Ramesham, Ph.D.
Successful development of an electronic nose requires a development of an array of sensors that are specific to the compounds of interest. Our main objective is to assess the reliability of packaged JPL developed and commercially available electronic noses to determine their utility as an air quality monitor in crew habitat on a spacecraft, International Space Station like missions. This paper reviews the current status of e-nose packaging technology and reliability issues from commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) e-noses to specific application and provides lessons learned in the past missions.

12:15 Application of an Easy-to-Use Electronic Nose with Long-Term Stability
Philip L. Wylie, Ph.D., Senior Applications Chemist, Research and Development, Agilent Technologies
One problem that has plagued commercial electronic nose systems since their introduction is model drift caused by instrument instability. This has largely prevented e-noses from being used in QA/QC labs where stable models are required for accurate predictions over long periods of time. This paper describes numerous applications of a new e-nose that is easy-to-use and that provides long-term stability.

12:45 Lunch on your own

Market Opportunities for
Electronic Noses

1:55 Chairperson's Remarks
Steven A. Sunshine, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Cyrano Sciences, Inc.

2:00 Sniffing for E. coli O157:H7
Evangelyn C. Alocilja, Ph.D., Biosystems Engineering Program, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University
Escherichia coli O157:H7 has been implicated as the causative agent in many food poisoning illnesses and outbreaks, sometimes leading to far more serious illnesses such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), which has a mortality rate of as high as 50% among the elderly. President ClintonÕs Food Safety Initiative and the US Department of Agriculture have resolved for a zero-tolerance policy on this pathogen. Conventional detection methods are laborious, prone to error and fatigue, cumbersome, and time-consuming, often taking 3-7 days to diagnose. The E. coli sniffer, which will be described in the paper, will detect and differentiate E. coli O157:H7 from non-O157:H7 strains in less than 24 hours. Rapid detection will improve consumer confidence, reduce health risk, and improve the economic potential of the food industry.

2:30 Case Studies in Environmental Monitoring with the Electronic Nose
Susan S. Schiffman, Ph.D., Professor of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical School
Electronic nose instruments can be used to monitor environmental quality of indoor and outdoor air. Odorous air pollution from animal production facilities, wastewater treatment plants, and composting facilities have generated complaints from citizens in surrounding communities. In North Carolina, odors from swine facilities have raised concern regarding potential health risks due to prolonged exposure. The electronic nose has been used to monitor the presence of these malodors and to evaluate various remediation technologies. In another environmental project, we have tested the ability of the electronic nose to detect and identify fungi and other organisms in indoor air handling systems.

3:00 Exhibit/Poster Viewing and Refreshment Break

3:30 Application of Electronic Noses Outside of the Laboratory
Steven A. Sunshine, Ph.D.
Electronic nose technology is beginning to take hold as a laboratory tool. Using electronic noses in the lab requires a time delay due to sample transportation. To make this technology successful outside of the laboratory, usage must be simple, data analysis must be automatic, the system must be robust, and data must be transferable. This talk will focus on technical advances in low cost array based sensing and on real examples that demonstrate the value of reducing the time delay in acquiring and sharing chemical information.

4:00 The oNoseª: A Vapor-Sensing Approach Based on Randomly-Assembled, High Density Fluorescent Bead Arrays
Todd Dickinson, Ph.D., Scientist, Illumina, Inc.
We are developing an Ôoptical noseÕ technology that combines fiber-optic bundles with microspheres doped with solvatochromic dyes. Wet-etching followed by a random bead assembly process is used to build an optically-addressable array of thousands of vapor-sensing sites in a region roughly the size of the head of a pin. Array responses are generated from the broad wavelength changes induced by the interaction of vapors with the polarity-sensitive dyes incorporated into the beads. An overview of the oNoseª technology, recent advances, and prospects for a commercial device will be discussed.

4:30 Panel Discussion

4:45 Chairperson's Remarks and Close of Conference

Call for Posters

Selected Oral Presentations and Call for Posters
Industry, government and academic researchers are encouraged to submit poster abstracts for this event. One-page abstracts (8 1/2” x 11” with 1-inch margins) must be submitted no later than September 29, 2000 for inclusion in the program course book. Additional poster submissions will be accepted until October 13, 2000 but may not be included in the course book. Note: The poster board reservation fee is $35. If you are submitting a poster, you MUST be registered and paid in advance to ensure that a poster board is reserved for you.

Time has been allocated during the program for selected oral delegate poster presentations. Attending delegates are encouraged to submit poster abstracts for short, oral technical presentations to be held during the meeting. To be considered for an oral presentation you must be a paid registered delegate. Please submit a one page abstract by August 1, 2000.

Sponsorship & Exhibit Opportunities
Take advantage of tailored opportunities to reach a very targeted, decision-making audience. We offer a variety of packages, each designed to maximize your organization's exposure and facilitate networking at this event. Don't miss this opportunity to showcase your products to a large audience of attendees qualified to make purchasing decision as well as demonstrate your company. s position as a leader in this market.

Conference Sponsorships
A variety of conference sponsorships are available which offer incremental levels of visibility to conference delegates at the event - as well as opportunities for marketing exposure prior to the event. Taking advantage of pre-conference options has the added benefit of getting your organization's name out to a large group of interested decision makers.

Networking Event Sponsorships
These "mini" sponsorships offer representatives of your organization a dedicated opportunity to network with conference delegates - with your organization clearly recognized as the host of the event.

• Cocktail Receptions
• Luncheons
• Dinner Banquets
• Hospitality Suites

Workshop Sponsorships
Your company may sponsor an instructional workshop (subject to approval) for delegates in conjunction with the conference. Highlight your organization's expertise! Delegate feedback indicates that these scientific/technical vehicles enhance retention of your organization's presence in their minds - increasing the potential for drawing customers long after the conference is over. Call Craig Wohlers at (617) 232-7400 ext. 205 or email today for pricing information and customization options.

Register

Register me for this exciting conference!