Correlation Spectrometer
Technology Summary
Correlation spectrometers measure trace amounts of a chemical in the presence of many other chemicals by comparing the light transmission of a sample to a known reference. Sandia National Laboratories has developed a correlation spectrometer capable of determining the concentration of a target compound in a sample.
Description
Working for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Sandia optical engineers created a new instrument for measuring trace amounts of chemicals like methane or carbon monoxide.
The spectrometer encodes dozens of reference signals onto a compact disk, alleviating the need to port around reference gas samples or run samples to a lab for gas chromatography. The disk-encoded correlation spectrometer enables rapid, high confidence point-of-service measurements of trace gases.
The spectrometer can measure the transmission spectrum from a given sample of gas using infrared light. The spectrometer can detect the transmission or emission spectra in any system where multiple species are present in a known volume.
In contrast to many conventional spectrometers, the SNL spectrometer is simple and can be miniaturized.
Benefits
- Optimized for infrared chemical signature detection
- Eigen-spectra encoded on a rotating mask enables lock-in detection of gas concentration
- Ideal for detection where other gases interfere and spectral lines are not fully resolved
Applications and Industries
- Consumer Furnace Safety: Carbon Monoxide Testing
- Gas Pipeline Safety/ Methane Sensing
- Industrial Processing Monitoring
- Safety: Hazardous Gas Monitoring
- Environment: Air quality/pollution, Greenhouse Gases
- Hydrogen (H2) fueling stations
Portfolio name
Sensors & Detectors
Download the PDFs for more information
- Market Sheet (253 KB)
Intellectual Property
Title | ID Number |
Patent Number |
Date |
---|---|---|---|
Correlation spectrometer | 10165.1 | 7,697,134 | 04/13/2010
Issued |