Deployable micro-spectrometer bullets

Abstract

A tiny and portable micro-spectrometer deployable in a bullet-like form that is inexpensive to the point that it can even be disposable is described. The device is based on the micro-spectrometer that uses the Fresnel diffraction principle that allows a tiny implementation with a nanometer resolving power of spectral signal. A bullet-like micro-spectrometer has an integration of a super capacitor as a power source, a charging coil for the super capacitor, an LED or laser diode light source and driver, an analog to digital converter (ADC) circuit, and a telemetry system with antenna string. An LED or laser diode runs in a burst mode to generate deep or vacuum UV to excite target material. When the excited state of target material undergoes a singlet or triplet transition, this transition process yields fluorescence or luminescence which is a material-dependent. The micro-spectrometer senses and uses this spectral emission from material to identify the spectral signature of the targeted material. The data is converted by an ADC and transmitted to a receiving station.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.