From evaluation to licencing of low-cost miniature conductivity temperature and dissolved oxygen sensor technology

从低成本微型电导率温度和溶解氧传感器技术的评估到许可

基本信息

批准号：
NE/M021866/1
负责人：
Matt Mowlem
金额：
$ 15.64万
依托单位：
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2015 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FM021866%2F1
关键词：
evaluation licencing low cost miniature

项目摘要

Measuring water parameters is required in many industries and in environmental science. The most widely measured and required parameters are temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen. These measurements are used in multiple applications such as weather forcasting, climate modelling, water quality assessment, sewage processing and aquaculture. In many cases a high precision measurement and continuous data is required. Commercial sensors with high performance have delivered this data and have enabled dramatic advances in these fields. However, they are expensive (~$10000) and large preventing widespread use in high density data collection systems. Smaller and cheaper ($500) sensors are available, but currently are not sufficiently accurate or precise for many applications.The University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre have developed a unique ultra miniature high-precision salinity temperature and dissolved oxygen sensor for water analysis. These parameters are all measured on a small glass chip (8 x 10 mm) with patterned metal tracks to form the sensors. Salinity is calculated from a combination of temperature and conductivity measured with four micro electrodes in contact with the water. This chip is plugged into custom made electronics that operates the chip and stores the data and communicates with the outside world. The total sensor system is the size of a marker pen. The technology has significant market potential (estimated $420M at 2011 rates) and has received significant commercial interest. However, the current barrier to commercialisation is a technical problem with long term stability. This is only 0.016 C in three months, but many applications require only 0.001 C stability over 3 months.We have identified that the source of the problem as water uptake which causes swelling (1.6% by volume) of the polymer that we use to package and insulate the metal tracks. This swelling causes the chip and metal track sensors to bend or elongate over time causing the drift. This affects the temperature and conductivity measurement and hence the salinity accuracy.The solution is to replace the polymer insulator with a hard and water resistant material such as Silicon Oxide. Silicon oxide is widely used in electronics where very thin (100 nm, one ten thousandth of a millimetre) layers are deposited. In our chip we require a much thicker layer > 0.01 mm. The challenge is to develop a process to manufacture these thick layers and new sensor chips.Once this technical problem is resolved, we will conduct short and long term testing to verify sufficient performance for the markets and applications. We will do this in partnership with sensor companies who we hope to work with to bring the product to market. The outcome of the project should be a license agreement with a company and a new product line.

在许多行业和环境科学中，都需要测量水参数。最广泛的测量和所需的参数是温度，盐度和溶解氧。这些测量值用于多种应用，例如天气开发，气候建模，水质评估，污水处理和水产养殖。在许多情况下，需要高精度测量和连续数据。具有高性能的商业传感器已提供了这些数据，并在这些领域实现了巨大的进步。但是，它们价格昂贵（约合10000美元），并且很大程度上防止在高密度数据收集系统中广泛使用。提供较小且便宜（500美元）的传感器，但目前在许多应用中还不够准确或精确。Southampton大学和国家海洋学中心已经开发了独特的超微型高精度盐度温度和溶解的氧气传感器来进行水分析。这些参数均在带有图案金属轨道的小玻璃芯片（8 x 10 mm）上测量，以形成传感器。盐度是根据与四个微电极与水接触的温度和电导率的组合计算得出的。将此芯片插入自定义的电子产品，该电子设备运行芯片并存储数据并与外界进行通信。总传感器系统是标记笔的大小。该技术具有巨大的市场潜力（估计在2011年利率为4.2亿美元），并获得了大量商业利益。但是，目前的商业化障碍是长期稳定性的技术问题。这仅在三个月内仅0.016 c，但是许多应用仅需要3个月内的0.001 c稳定性。我们已经确定，该问题的来源是吸水的来源，这会导致我们用于包装并隔离金属轨道的聚合物的肿胀（1.6％）。这种肿胀会导致芯片和金属轨道传感器随着时间的流逝而弯曲或拉长，从而导致漂移。这会影响温度和电导率测量，因此盐度精度。解决方案是用耐硬氧化材料（例如氧化硅）代替聚合物绝缘子。氧化硅被广泛用于电子设备中，其中非常薄（100 nm，一千分之一毫米）沉积。在我们的芯片中，我们需要厚度> 0.01毫米的厚层。面临的挑战是开发制造这些厚层和新的传感器芯片的过程。解决此技术问题后，我们将进行短期和长期测试，以验证市场和应用的足够性能。我们将与传感器公司合作做到这一点，我们希望与他们合作将产品推向市场。该项目的结果应是与公司和新产品线的许可协议。